Jaeger-Lecoultre Molecomb Stakes report and replay: Big Mojo wins for Big Evs team
By David Ord
16:02 · WED July 31, 2024
Big Mojo (25/1) sprang a surprise in the Jaeger-Lecoultre Molecomb Stakes for the team who won the race last season with Big Evs.
The son of first-season sire Mohaather was second on his only previous start at Beverley and took a major step forward at Goodwood, travelling powerfully down the centre of the track under Silvestre De Sousa.
He went to the front inside the final furlong and ran out a ready three-quarters-of-a-length winner from 2/1 favourite Aesterius, with Mr Lightside (11/1), a stablemate of the winner, a further head away in third.
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Winning trainer Mick Appleby said: “I do hold him in the same regard as Big Evs, but I couldn’t split him and Mr Lightside. They’re two very, very good two-year-olds. It’s great for the owner to have another good horse and it’s great for us, too'
"I did say he could be as good as Big Evs, he’s a good horse, a very good horse. Him and Mr Lightside, I couldn’t split them as I think they’re both very good. I worked them together the other day and I couldn’t pick between them. He’s run a blinder as well. They’re both very good two-year-olds.
“They wouldn’t be far behind Big Evs either as two-year-olds. They could both go to America for the Breeders’ Cup, but Big Mojo will go to the Gimcrack (at York) first. The owner wants his wife to do the speech as the winning owner at the Gimcrack dinner. To be fair this was our main target with him.”
Winning owner Paul Teasdale added: “We bought him just after the Breeders’ Cup last year. He went to Beverley first time out, he was a little bit green but he ran really well. He’s made such an improvement, we were going to put him in the maiden but we said to Mick ‘put him in the Molecomb, he’s good enough’.”
Asked whether there would now be a temptation to cash in on Big Mojo, he insisted: “We’re in racing to win, we’re not in it to sell horses on. We’re here to win and that’s what we’ve done today.”
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De Sousa said: “It was great – Big Mojo is an exciting horse. He’s improved a lot since his last run in a maiden, and it was a nice way to break a maiden in a Group Three. He is only going to improve.
“He has a lot of speed, and I’d like him over six furlongs as well. I think he is a quality horse going forward. He is strong physically but his mind is not there yet.”
Archie Watson said of Aesterius: “You can’t be unhappy; he’s just raced away from the winner a bit. These things happen in these big fields; he didn’t really get to race against the winner there, but he’s run a huge race and got his head down on the line to win the photo for second. He’s very exciting, very professional, and he’s growing up race to race. Five furlongs I think is his trip.
“We’d love to finish off the year in Del Mar, if he can get there - I think that sort of race, a quick turning five on quick ground would suit him. Soldier’s Call went from the Prix d’Arenberg on to the Flying Childers, and I would imagine we will do something along those lines as long as we are happy. So it will probably be Chantilly next."
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