Nelson scuppers Cecil bid
Although Henry Cecil has enjoyed a fair share of Group One success during his illustrious career, it has to be said a victory for Phoenix Tower in the Coral-Eclipse would have pleased the masses.
However, it was not to be as the Aidan O’Brien team came up trumps yet again as Mount Nelson edged the feature race to deny the legendary trainer.
Admittedly, this year’s Eclipse lacked the glamour and glitz of past renewals but with Cecil’s second runner Multidimensional setting a scorching gallop it still took some winning.
Mount Nelson, ridden by Johnny Murtagh and sent off at 7-2, got up in the dying strides to win by a short-head and consign Phoenix Tower to the second spot for the third time at the highest level this term.
O’Brien said: “He is a very good horse this fellow. He had a few little problems at three and tore off a shoe at the start of the spring last year and took half of his foot with it.
“The whole team did a great job to get him back and they need to take all the credit. He is an amazing horse to come back and we didn’t think he would make it.
“He was a Group One winner at two and has run well this season. He got tired first time out at the Curragh in soft ground and has run well in France and in the Queen Anne. He was fifth that day and Seamie (Heffernan) thought he would have been closer with a clear run.”
Cecil, who has also suffered reverses in the Eclipse with the likes of Bosra Sham and Reference Point, said: “He just got headed on the line.
“I think he put his head back in front of the other horse again but Mount Nelson just came back again.
“He’s run a blinder and he’s in everything now but we haven’t decided what to do.”
Old stager Distinction returned to the winner’s enclosure as a nine-year-old with a thrilling victory in the Weatherbys VAT Services Stakes.
Harry Herbert, who runs the owning syndicate Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, said: “He’s such a favourite – we bought him as a yearling and now he has won nearly £400,000 in win and place prize-money.
“Sir Michael (Stoute) says he will keep going as long as he retains his form at this level – Listed and beyond.
“There was a time when we thought he had lost it, but he so rarely has his ground.”
Luca Cumani continues to dominate the Old Newton Cup at Haydock, saddling his third winner of the valuable handicap in recent years as Mad Rush ran out an impressive victor.
Seb Sanders was merely a passenger as the 5-2 favourite beat Young Mick by four lengths.
Cumani said: “He was at risk of going up and up in the weights without winning anything.
“It wasn’t a bad performance when he was second at Royal Ascot where Ryan Moore rode a great race on the winner (Sugar Ray).
“He deserved this as he’s come up against good horses early on in his career. Today he made no mistake, he quickened up well and he doesn’t mind any ground.”
Richard Fahey’s Anna Pavlova was another impressive winner on the card as she landed the Lancashire Oaks by three and a quarter lengths from Jim Bolger’s Ezima.
Local lad Paul Hanagan was in the saddle and said: “It’s like winning the Derby, it’s absolutely brilliant.
“They went a decent clip, which always helps, and when she gets that ground she’s very good.”
Andrew Balding’s Top Lock could finish only third behind Kamsin in the German Derby at Hamburg on Sunday but Paul Cole’s Percolator enjoyed better luck in scoring an all-the-way success in the Prix du Bois at Maisons-Laffitte.
