Auden bounces back
Auden wrote off his odds-on Brighton defeat by taking the NGK Spark Plugs EBF Maiden Stakes at Newmarket today.
The first event of the three-day Cambridgeshire meeting looked a tricky one, with a whole bundle of likeable unraced sorts involved.
Auden (13-2) was back to the form of his debut second on the July course under Ahmed Ajtebi and was a little more tuned up than Academy and Trumpington Street. A length and a quarter was the winning margin.
"It's horses for courses," said Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford.
"He likes to get his toe in - he didn't like it at Brighton."
The field were strung all over the course for the Weatherbys Nursery and it was Mariachi Man (10-1) who came out on top.
David Allan led the centre group aboard the Tim Easterby-trained gelding and managed to repel Indigo Way and Poplin by a nose and a neck in a pulsating finish.
Allan said: "He's a very big horse and we'll be expecting good things from him next year.
"Although he was seventh at Doncaster last time he was only beaten a length and it was the first time he'd had a proper race.
"It was touch and go at the end - I couldn't be too sure I'd won."
Harris Tweed continued to prove himself a particularly exciting young stayer in the Listed Noel Murless Stakes.
Although beaten in the Bahrain Trophy and more comprehensively in the Great Voltigeur Stakes, this was the 5-4 favourite's fourth success this season.
Harris Tweed, trained by William Haggas and owned by his father Brian, seemed to relish the mile and six furlongs and thanks to a cultured ride from Liam Jones, was in control throughout to finish three lengths in front of Ship's Biscuit.
"He's just a lovely and very able horse," said Haggas junior.
"His style of running means he gives himself a serious race every time and I'd like to call it a day now and bring him back for the Ormonde Stakes next May."
Grim determination got Rerouted (8-1) through by a short head in the Group Three Somerville Tattersall Stakes.
A colt of whom Barry Hills has expected a little more, he set out to make all the running under the trainer's son Michael, but found himself surrounded and overtaken by Surrey Star.
The chestnut built up another head of steam and charged for the line, just getting the verdict in a photo.
Hills senior said: "I thought he would win the nursery at Newmarket and he didn't, then I really fancied him at Doncaster but he didn't win there either.
"I knew he was better than a horse rated 89 and I was keen to run him today.
"The Horris Hill is a possibility but we'll see how he is in 10 days' time."
