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Goodwood Cup report: Trueshan delivers for Hollie Doyle
Hollie Doyle all smiles as Trueshan wins Goodwood Cup
Alan King trained a first Group One winner on the Flat as Trueshan landed the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup Stakes.
He was sent off the 6/5 favourite after Stradivarius was ruled out because of the testing ground and the only concern he gave supporters was a tendency to race keenly through the early stages.
However after turning for home Hollie Doyle took him to the far rail - and then the front - and the partnership slowly turned the screw.
One-by-one they cracked in behind with the five-year-old powering clear to score by four lengths from Away He Goes (33/1) with the admirable Sir Ron Priestley sticking on well for third.
Doyle said: “It’s incredible. He’s been in my mind every day since Champions Day, when we could get back together – these are the days you do it for.
“He was pretty fresh early on, they were going no gallop and I expected there to be a bit of pace on and at halfway I thought ‘I’ve got to do something about this, I’m not getting trapped on the rail, they’re going to sprint finish’.
“I managed to slide onto the girths of the leaders, he completely dropped the bridle with me and the further he went, the better. When I hit the rising ground, he went again. It’s a staying challenge and when I hit the rising ground he was gone again.
“He’s a superstar on this ground. I got some buzz off that – I don’t get too high or too low, but when you get experiences like that you’ve got to make the most of it.”
King is perhaps more renowned for winners at Cheltenham, but is becoming an increasingly potent force on the Flat.
He said: “It’s no better but it’s right up there with the Champion Hurdles and things, of course it is. All I want to do is train proper horses and I don’t mind whether they’re jumpers or not, I’m not giving up the jumping just yet!”
He went on: “We’re out of practice a bit, I haven’t been coming racing much over the past 18 months and I don’t think I’ve ever saddled this horse to win – I was nearly told to stay at home! He was just a little bit keen but he can be like that – thank God we went to Newcastle because if he’d come straight from Chester he’d have been ferocious today.
“I was glad he had a proper race there and we were able to let him down and then build him back up, a lot of people thought we were mad running him (at Newcastle) without a flat weight but he needed to go somewhere.”
Trainer Ismail Mohammed was thrilled with the effort of Away He Goes. He said: “As we watched we thought he was going to win. We are very proud of him. Maybe we will head to France for a race one month from now that we had pencilled in.”
His rider Jim Crowley was equally pleased, saying: “He was travelling better than the winner who outstayed him on that ground. His form in Dubai was very good, so it was not a total surprise.”
David Cleary Timeform Goodwood Cup analysis
The ground proved the key to the outcome of the first Group 1 race of the Goodwood Festival, the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup. A thunderstorm that dumped an extra 16 mm on the track in the middle of the night led to Stradivarius being withdrawn, the ground deemed too soft. He thus missed his bid to win the race for a fifth time.
If it was too soft for him, the surface was ideal for clear form rival Trueshan, who had beaten Stradivarius on testing ground in the Long Distance Cup last October. With Stradivarius absent, Trueshan got back in the winner's enclosure in authoritative fashion, though is unlikely to have had to run any better than previously in beating those that stood their ground. A repeat bid for the Long Distance Cup would seem the most obvious autumn target, though an extra half mile in the Cadran might show him to even better advantage.
With Santiago and Serpentine yet to emerge from the wilderness this summer and with the ground probably softer than ideal for Sir Ron Priestly, it was left to the 33/1-chance Away He Goes to offer the most resistance to Trueshan. They were upsides one another after two out, before Trueshan drew away in the final furlong. Away He Goes is an improved performer this year, with the step up to two miles looking to serve him well.
