Rest of York review: Quick as you like in Lonsdale

Quickthorn looks a star in Lonsdale

Quickthorn turned the Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup Stakes into a procession as Hughie Morrison’s stayer continued his rise up the staying ranks.

Second in both the Further Flight Stakes and Sagaro Stakes in April, he went on to land the Group Three Henry II Stakes at Sandown before adding the Group Two Prix Maurice de Nieuil at ParisLongchamp last month.

With Stradivarius and Trueshan both absent, he brought up his hat-trick in facile fashion on the Knavesmire, with Tom Marquand dictating terms aboard the 9/4 winner to make every yard – and in a quick time.

Allowed an easy easy lead in the early stages, he extended his advantage to upwards of 10 lengths as the field travelled down the back, with the gap only betting bigger in the home straight, where Marquand was able to comfortably cruise home in splendid isolation.

He returned a winning distance of 14 lengths back to runner-up Coltrane and both Coral and Paddy Power subsequently cut the five-year-old to 7/1 from 12/1 for the British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot.

'Blown away'

A clearly impressed Marquand said: “I’m pretty blown away by him. Obviously I’ve ridden him the last few times and got a really good feel off him at Sandown and in France. When I pulled up in France I felt like I had a couple of gears left, but ultimately on these stayers you might be kidding yourself a bit.

“I could have broken his stride but what’s the point, he’s an exuberant stayer with a full tank under him and we went steady enough that he doesn’t overcook it.

“I knew I’d stretched away down the back, at the two I gave him a flick as he was looking at the crowd but I heard the commentary and looked at the big screen and was able to take a sit.

“You almost wish the big guns were here to see what might have happened. He also did it on ground that was probably quicker than ideal.

“I’m hugely excited for what the future might hold as he’s only just getting going.”

Morrison added: “We’ve got three options, the Prix Royal-Oak, the Prix du Cadran and the Long Distance Cup. He is in the Irish St Leger, but he’s had a hard enough race there.

“He’s quick and a flat track helps him, Tom said he didn’t enjoy going down the hill at Sandown.

“I’m a believer that with horses you think need soft ground you can get away with it on a level track and they do a great job with the ground here.

“If you’d seen him work last Saturday you wouldn’t have fancied him, he couldn’t catch a horse rated 44 so I was pretty pessimistic the last few days!

“He just keeps galloping. I think he’s still improving and I’m disappointed the other two didn’t turn up. He’s improved a stone this year. We’ll never know if he’d have beaten the other two today, but he’d have certainly given them a race.”

Beaten horses

Andrew Balding said of Coltrane: “He ran a great race in the circumstances but just couldn’t match the winner, obviously.

“I’m not sure where we’ll go next at the moment.”

In third was Reshoun, whose trainer Ian Williams said: “We have to be happy with third as first thing this morning, on that performance, we probably wouldn’t have finished any closer than fifth.

“It’s a nice result. It’s a shame for York that the race fell apart at the last moment, but it had the potential to do so, which is why Reshoun was declared.

“He’s picked up some decent prize-money, everybody is happy and we’ll find somewhere to go next.”

Noble Style powers home in the Gimcrack

Noble Style kept his unbeaten record intact when coming from last to first to land the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Gimcrack Stakes at York.

Made ante-post favourite for the Coventry Stakes having downed Walbank at Ascot on debut, the Charlie Appleby-trained son of Kingman has made up for missing that Royal Ascot engagement by impressing at Newmarket and showing his class in this first taste of Group action on the Knavesmire.

Held up in rear and shadowing Richmond Stakes winner Royal Scotsman in the early stages, William Buick was willing to bide his time as eventual runner-up Marshman disputed matters with his Karl Burke stablemate Cold Case on the front end.

Clifford Lee made his move for home first and the 9/4 favourite looked set to justify his lofty reputation.

But Buick soon got Noble Style (3/1) motoring and it was the 525,000 guineas buy who was doing his best work late and flew home to land the spoils, with the front pair pulling well clear of the third Cold Case.

Appleby said: “After his Ascot win all roads were leaning towards Royal Ascot, but two weeks out we just weren’t happy with him. There was no issue there, but he just wasn’t the same horse as he was prior to his maiden success.

“I’m very lucky to be able to make the call and give this horse the time that was needed, then we took him to Newmarket and he won there, after which some people might have thought he’d regressed.

“We were very happy with how the horse came out of it – physically you could see how much improvement was there – and he galloped earlier in the week and looked as good as we’ve ever seen him.

“We came in here with confidence, but there was plenty of strength in depth in the race today, he had to go and do it and he did it well. The nice thing about him is he goes through the line well.

“He will step up to seven furlongs at some stage, but as we all know the next couple of weeks is an important time for the two-year-olds. They start to sort themselves out and find their feet and there’s important races coming up soon.

“I suppose the National Stakes can be put into the melting pot, but there’s a couple more horses to come out and whether this horse might be able to do it again over six in the Middle Park and we step up at a later stage, or whether we step up to seven on his next start – it’s a healthy discussion to have.”

Bookmakers took a positive view of his Classic chance in the 2000 Guineas, with Betfair going 7/1 from 16/1, and Coral 10/1 from 16s.

Appleby added: “I see no reason why he won’t stay a mile (in the Guineas). He’s got a pedigree that suggests that he’ll get it for sure and he does it all very nicely.”

Burke said of his runners: “They are two lovely colts and we have a lot to look forward to with them.

“Who knows, maybe running just seven days after Thirsk made the difference for Marshman as he had a real good blow. Although he won very easily he had a race. I think there’s more to come from him, maybe ridden a bit differently. Cliff said he was still pretty green when he was on his own. All credit to the winner, he looks a very good horse.

“I said all along I thought Cold Case was very good. He was my favourite through the winter and I think he’s got a big future. Possibly he might go to the Mill Reef next.

“I’m not sure where Marshman will go, I’ll have a sit down with Nick (Bradley, owner) and discuss it. We’ve got some nice two-year-olds.

“Maybe I left the Gimcrack at Thirsk, who knows, but he’ll win a big one soon.”

Rest of York review

Desert Order added his name to the illustrious roll of honour in the British Stallion Studs EBF Convivial Maiden at York.

With £80,000 up for grabs, it is hardly surprising the seven-furlong contest has been won by several high-class types, with Molatham, Naval Crown and Hoo Ya Mal the last three to strike gold.

Molatham went on to score at Listed and Group Three level, Desert Order’s stablemate Naval Crown landed the Platinum Jubilee at Royal Ascot and Hoo Ya Mal found only Desert Crown too good in the Derby.

Having been placed on his first two starts, Desert Order was the 10/11 favourite to make it third time lucky for Charlie Appleby and William Buick and made much of the running.

Glenfinnan lunged late, but the market leader had enough in hand to hold on by half a length.

Appleby, completing a double on the card following the earlier success of Noble Style in the Gimcrack Stakes, said: “William said he showed a lot of natural pace there and I think we just got outstayed over the mile at Sandown last time by a very nice horse (Arrest) who we respect going forward.

“He’s done it the hard way today as he brought experience into it and that definitely told towards the finish. He’s a nice horse going forward.

“He could be a horse for something like the Somerville (Tattersalls Stakes). Off the top of my head that could be a nice target for him at Newmarket.”

State Occasion and Rossa Ryan supplemented Glorious Goodwood success with another impressive display in the Assured Data Protection EBF Fillies’ Handicap.

A 5lb rise for scoring on the Sussex Downs proved nowhere near enough to prevent Ralph Beckett’s charge from following up as she cruised to the front and passed the post two lengths clear of 85/40 favourite Amanzoe, who was bidding for a fourth successive win.

Beckett said: “To win a handicap here and at Goodwood takes a bit of doing. Not too many can do that, so it’s testament to her resilience and durability.

“We’ll probably look for some black type next – it looks like I’m going to have to finally move out of handicaps with her.

“She did it really well today – it was a proper effort.”

John Butler registered his second winner of the week when Farhan returned to winning ways in the Sky Bet Handicap.

Winner of the November Handicap last season, Farhan had been out of luck in his two efforts to date this term.

But Butler, who struck with Designer at 14/1 on Wednesday, was celebrating again on the Knavesmire as Neil Callan brought the 20-1 chance with a powerful run inside the final furlong.

Silvestre de Sousa had made a bold bid for home a long way out on Party Island, but he was treading water inside the distance as the challengers closed in.

Farhan beat Thundering by three-quarters of a length with the same back to 6/1 favourite Mahrajaan.

“I’ve had my wife and kids up all week, they’ve been guests of Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics, but she’s taken the youngest home and the older two are staying up and are going to Kevin Ryan’s with me in the morning,” said Callan.

“They both have a love for racing and love riding out. It’s great they were here.”

He added: “I was always confident, John told me he was in fantastic condition and that he’d have loved to have run him by now but the ground hadn’t been soft enough. He thought this was the safest ground he could run him on.

“To be fair he let down quite well and it was a good win.”

Point Lynas followed up last month’s Redcar success, despite being sent off at odds of 25/1 in the concluding Sky Bet Mile Handicap.

The James Bethell-trained Iffraj gelding, ridden by Ray Dawson, got the better of Master Richard by a nose.

Dawson said: “It was always going to be a tough race, but the horse shows he stays and if you get the right position on him, he will always run a good race. It was very close.”

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.