Bay City Roller ran out a wide-margin winner of a Coolmore Coronation Cup run in driving rain at Epsom.
The Ballydoyle team set out to make it a proper test of stamina, Illinois forcing the early pace but by Tattenham Corner he had started to beat a retreat.
Stablemate Lambourn went on and stayed by the far rail, followed by the winner.
However Oisin Murphy soon chartered a course towards the centre of the track and the leader went on by three lengths.
It wasn’t to last, once on his preferred lane, Bay City Roller began a relentless run to the line which swept him to the front and a ten-lengths victory.
Jan Brueghel came through from last place to snatch the forecast spot.
Sky Bet and Paddy Power cut the winner to 12/1 from 33s for the King George at Ascot, with Calandagan still 5/2 favourite. He was back over 40 lengths away in fourth in Saturday, eased down after coming off the bridle early in the straight.
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"I’m grateful to everyone on this journey, right back to the beginning. It’s so nice to share this with the people who have been with me from the start, and Billy Jackson-Stops, the horse, the owner - I can’t really believe it. I just prayed that one day we’d turn up and we’d get these conditions and this ground. He’s a very, very good horse on this ground and I’m so pleased he’s shown it.
"He’s a consummate professional, a freak of a horse. He just goes and does his job, trains hard every day, relishes his racing, and I’m so pleased he’s proven it today.
“This race was always on his radar, but once we’d decided to commit to the Tattersalls Gold Cup, then it was obviously a short back up. I was keen, with the weather looking like it might turn, to prepare him for this race, and from that point on it was inevitable that we were going to run.
“He stays so well. I think he’s just been running well at a mile and a quarter because he’s a top-class horse, but a mile and a half on soft ground is his bread and butter. I don’t know whether we’ll give him a bit of time now and anticipate a preparation for the Arc - I think the Arc is his race.
"He’s a horse who, you give him some time off and he just tears the place down. I’m not exaggerating, you can’t catch him in his box, so we won’t give him too much time off. We were going to go to the Hardwicke if we got beat today, we won’t do that, but we’ll take stock, enjoy today and go from there.
“It’s an out of body experience, if I’m being honest. We’re on that trajectory to run in these races now, we have the calibre of owner and stock, but you never quite think it’s going to happen, and Sheikh Nasser is really a special human being. He’s the one who has given me this opportunity - 30, 40 horses with us, takes winning and losing in the same manner, and he’ll have enjoyed this today.”
Murphy added: “These are his ideal conditions. I thought it was amazing from the horse and the stable that he was able to come here is such good form after running a previous career best at The Curragh just 13 days ago. I’d been sent videos of him at home between then and now and he was bucking, which was extraordinary.
"He wasn’t hot in any way, but he was fresh to post, and in the race he was push-button, which he always is. He’s a great example of the stallion [New Bay]. Massive for George Scott, it’s a young stable, obviously a career-best season last year and on the verge of a way better season this year with already two Group One wins on the board.”
Reaction from connections of beaten horses
O'Brien said of Jan Brueghel and Lambourn: “I’m happy with that. They ran very well. The winner loves soft ground, doesn't he - I think he won 10 lengths in Germany on soft ground - and obviously it’s tough ground out there now.
“They both get a mile and a half well obviously, but when conditions turn like that you have to be a bit of a specialist.”
Francis-Henri Graffard, trainer of Calandagan said: "Mickael (Barzalona, jockey) said he never travelled comfortably and that the ground is too testing for him.
“I shouldn't have run him. I walked the course with Mickael. We decided to come on the stands' side but the race before changed the minds of everybody. I was sure we should have come to the stands' side, but Mickael said he was beaten before that. It's frustrating but it will be the last time he meets that ground.
"To be fair, I walked the course at the end of the morning and it's changed a lot since then. It was a messy race and horses were all over the straight. I don't like that and I'm upset for my horse, but hopefully he comes out of it okay and we'll regroup and be positive.
"I think he'll go for the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and then back for the King George. Mickael looked after him in the straight, but mentally he'll be upset himself. He was ready to compete but it's just too testing ground today and it didn't work out."
Karl Burke, trainer of the fifth Convergent, said: “That was very disappointing, but Clifford (Lee, jockey) said he hated the ground, hated it. He was beaten coming around Tattenham Corner.
“We thought it was just an end-of-season thing when he was well beaten on soft ground in Germany last year, but although he won a novice on soft ground this is completely different and you won’t see him on this sort of ground again. Don’t be surprised if he turns up in the King George though.”
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