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Son shines in Golden Mile

Toimy Son overcame a wide draw to win the Coral Golden Mile.

Oisin Murphy was forced to sit on the outside aboard David Menuisier's charge but the 12/1 chance was always travelling powerfully and swept to the front approaching the final furlong.

He was in no danger from there, running on strongly to beat the staying-on Dutch Decoy by two lengths with 5/1 joint-favourite Holloway Boy in third.

The David O'Meara pair of Darkness and Bopedro were next home.

The winning rider told ITV Racing: "David is a local trainer and will be over the moon. It’s really hard to win these competitive handicaps and he had a terrible draw but sowed a good turn of foot. Kyle Strydom has done a lot of work with him – thanks to him and all the team at David’s for getting the horse here in great shape.

"I revved him up at the start a little because he can be slowly away. I tried to get inside his head and actually it worked as he broke better. I couldn’t use up too much petrol and – I don’t want to complicate this – but I was able to get in one-off [the rail], travel, and he picked up well.”

Menuisier said: "I don't know if I had him wrong but he just wasn't doing anything last year so we decided to geld him and give him an all-weather campaign. He had a couple of colic operations and nearly died, so we had to give him time.

"This season you could tell that he was coming back to some form. I kept him over seven because he was always a bit keen and by racing he settled naturally so I decided to go back to a mile and save him for this.

"I thought if he gets in he should be competitive but when I saw the draw a couple of days ago I kind of lost all hope, he was 21 of 21. I spoke to Oisin and he said of the horse runs his best he has a massive chance so we'll try and go a bit more forward than usual and the rest is history really.

"He's won a massive race so we'll enjoy this one. Big time. He was beaten by Wild Tiger, who won the Hunt Cup, so we knew he was capable of doing something big."

Charlie Johnston added of Dutch Decoy: "I'm a bit frustrated - I thought he was the best chance we had in the race, and when the draws came through - I was sat there at half ten on Wednesday waiting for the draws to come through - and obviously the winner has won from 21, but you need the rub of the green from that draw, and from two-and-a-half to the furlong marker we were all dressed up with nowhere to go.

"I actually thought my two in front were setting it up perfectly for him, because they were going a strong gallop, but that’s fourth, third, second in the last three renewals of this race, so we’ll just have to make sure we’re back here next year.”

Holloway Boy is set to gup in class next time, Karl Burke saying: "He’s run a great race again - he’s strung three good races together in a row in big handicaps now, and it’s so hard to give 18lbs to the winner, which was a much higher rated horse a year or so ago, and giving lumps of weight away to the second. He travelled beautifully through the race - possibly we got there 100 yards too soon; I don’t think so, though. We were just beaten by a better horse - a better handicapped horse - on the day.

"It’s probably wise now to look for a Listed event or a Group Three or something - he’s that type of classy horse. The way he travelled beautifully round here from a wide draw - the draw didn’t help us, either - he’s run very well, though we’re disappointed we got beat."

Breakthrough win for Al Jehani

Hamad Al Jehani celebrated his first ever British turf victory after Haunted Dream claimed the Regent Seven Seas Cruises Bentinck Conditions Stakes

Qatari trainer Al Jehani, who is based in Newmarket, made the move to the United Kingdom in April to join Wathnan Racing’s ever-expanding team. He had a near miss on Thursday as The Strikin Viking was a half-length runner-up to Black Forza in the Group Two Markel Richmond Stakes, but he finally made his mark thanks to the grey’s triumph at 4/1.

Jockey James Doyle bided his time aboard Haunted Dream in a prominent position behind pacesetter Prague in the one-mile-and-one-furlong contest. Once Prague began to fade in the closing stages, the son of Oasis Dream kicked clear of the challenging Cairo to prevail by half a length with 6/4 favourite My Prospero finishing strongly in third.

“Haunted Dream always does a very good job. He is an honest horse and we were really confident that he would do his job,” a relieved Al Jehani said. “I think the race was perfect for him, that pace was great for him, James dealt with him very well and we were very happy – we deserved that for all the team, to be honest, after that disappointing day yesterday. Today we deserved to have one of our runners win, so hopefully we might have more.”

Doyle was delighted to help deliver Al Jehani’s landmark win, feeling he had been at fault in the saddle for The Strikin Viking’s second-placed finish.

“He’s a tough horse, isn’t he? He’s had a whole season here last season, then he had a season in Qatar and now he’s come back, so he’s been a busy boy, but he seems to have thrived on it,” Wathnan’s lead jockey said. “Full credit to Hamad Al Jehani and his team. They felt like we should go again and they were 100 per cent right. t’s a key moment for Hamad in his career. His horses have been turned out impeccably, and they’ve run with great credit throughout all the big festival meetings.

“These are sort of tried-and-tested horses and it hasn’t been easy, but they’ve all run good races at Ascot, the Derby meeting… To come here and get a winner has been very important, especially after what happened yesterday with The Strikin Viking.

“We should have been stood over here (winner’s spot) and not in the second spot, and that was purely my fault – unfortunately I pressed the button sooner than I probably should have done, and I really felt for Hamad, because we all felt that would be his first winner. It was important today. I know it doesn’t smooth what happened yesterday, but it was important we got one on the board.”

Wathnan were soon celebrating once again when Artagnan landed the Hawes & Curtis Nursery Handicap by one and a half lengths to shed his maiden tag. Karl Burke’s runner went off at 16/1 under David Egan and made his move inside the final two furlongs to sit alongside leader Ardennes.

They were neck and neck in the closing stages but once the son of Mehmas got his nose in front with half a furlong to go, there was no stopping the charging colt to secure another two-year-old success for the Spigot Lodge handler this season.

“He’s done that very well. I said to Richard Brown from Wathnan that I was a little bit nervous that he’d had a longish break from Ascot to here, but he got it right,” Burke said. “The way he’s been working at home, I thought he was well-handicapped.

“This has been the plan since Ascot. It’s an important meeting for Wathnan, so this was the target. We’ll see what the handicapper does as to where we go next.”

Egan added: “It was very nice to get the last-minute call-up to ride, and Mr Burke was very confident about the horse. He came here in tremendous form carrying a low weight, and won very nicely.”

It was close to a treble on the day for Wathnan in the concluding Coral Play Racing-Super-Series For Free Handicap, with Doyle and the William Haggas-trained Wafei having to settle for second to the Oisin Murphy-ridden Assailant (John and Thady Gosden) in the colours of Bjorn Nielsen, who enjoyed so many great days at this meeting with Stradivarius.

Milliner lands opener for Lavelle

Master Milliner regained his title for Emma Lavelle and Charles Bishop in the Coral Goodwood Handicap.

The eight-year-old won the race under Sean Levey in 2022, but has been seldom seen since after missing the whole of 2023.

His two runs this year have seen him well beaten, and at Goodwood he was a 25/1 chance under Bishop when slightly overlooked in a field of 18. But over a trip just exceeding two and a half miles he travelled patiently throughout and stayed best of all to stride to a length-and-three-quarter triumph over Hughie Morrison’s Premier Ligne.

“He’s had a chequered history health-wise, because he had meningitis when he was three. Not many horses come through that, but we were very patient with him,” said owner Bill Simpson.

“Last year Emma noticed he wasn’t quite right so we gave him a year off and this year he’s come back, obviously needed the runs, but it’s a it’s a wonderful piece of training by Emma Lavelle and a fabulous ride by Charles. We were very confident that he still had the interest and the ability, so it’s just a wonderful day.

“I think a lot of people would probably have given up when he was in hospital for 10 days or more, costing a fortune, but it does make it very, very sweet for him to come back and run like that and break the course record apparently. He’s a fabulous horse and we’ll keep him forever because he’ll make a fabulous dressage horse at some stage.”

The winning rider added: "I said to Emma beforehand that we would just try and walk in as handy as we can so that we can sit where we are happy rather than too far back and trying to make up ground. It very much went to plan. He relaxes brilliantly which really helps over these extreme trips and he was great fun to ride.

"I didn't meant to get there two furlongs out but I was having to hold my ground around the top bend. I was happy to be three-wide with cover, I thought it was a good pitch over this trip but so many runners on the inside were trying to ease me out so I needed to hold my ground.

"I woke him up a bit and we got there two and I was thinking it's a long way home from here but he's an old horse, he didn't pull up. He had a look around but if anything had come to him he would have gone again."

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