Picture By Thomas Nugent
Epsom winner and odds-on Fav Lambourn came out on top again, but not without a gritty tussle to get the better of an unconsidered stable-mate in Serious Contender, who went down fighting by just three quarters of a length.
Given that Serious Contender had been beaten in a Royal Ascot handicap off a rating of just 92, this was not a spectacular performance by Lambourn but he got the job done – just.
The second and third from Epsom finished third and fourth this time, thus giving the form some substance and it could well be that Serious Contender is a massive improver and therefore could be a, erm, serious contender for Group glory later in the season.
Saturday’s Group 1 action was the Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes, in which the AO’B trained Whirl paid a big compliment to the Epsom Oaks winner Minnie Hauk by defeating the odds-on Kalpana by a comfortable length and a bit, despite shying away from an idiot photographer who was leaning over the rail.
This result was additionally notable for supplying the Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore combination their 150th Group 1 success, a record unlikely ever to be surpassed. We were happy to make it our bet of the day.
Racing in the UK last week was somewhat low key after the razzamatazz of Royal Ascot with a mixture of ordinary flat turf, very ordinary AW stuff and some summer jumping, mostly at Cartmel.
Things chirped up a bit on Saturday, however, with the 20 runner Northumberland Plate at Newcastle, which was won by the 25-1 poke Spirit Mixer, which made it third time lucky, having finished second in 2022 and ninth last year.
We showed our versatility during the week with winners under all three codes at 7-1 (AW), 8-1 & 11-4 (Jumps) and 11-2 (Turf).
Class is permanent.
