ROYAL ASCOT, ENGLAND // It is always telling when the defeated are overjoyed at being beaten.
Caravaggio proved without doubt that he is the best-three-year-old sprinter in Europe on Friday when he beat Godolphin’s Harry Angel and Blue Point in a compelling Commonwealth Cup.
Caravaggio and Ryan Moore came streaking away from the Godolphin pair in the closing stages of this Group 1 contest, with Harry Angel and Adam Kirby sticking on to be three quarters of a length behind. William Buick and Blue Point looked to have run their race but were still another half a length adrift.
Charlie Appleby was full of admiration for all three horses, and hoped to never meet the winner again.
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“We won’t see a sprint like that for a long time,” the Godolphin trainer said. “William came off Blue Point and told me he had never gone so quickly in a race before and that he was a machine. Blue Point just kept on finding more and more and kept on to the line.
“There are no chinks in the winner’s armour. We need to try to stay out of each other’s way or else turn up 100 per cent and hope the others are not.”
Where Caravaggio goes next is up to the syndicate Coolmore owners of John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor. The July Cup next month at Newmarket over the same 1,200-metre distance is an obvious target, but trainer Aidan O’Brien said The Everest, the new $AUS10 million (Dh27.8m) sprint in Australia in the autumn is being seriously considered. Coolmore reportedly have paid $1.8m for one of the 12 berths already.
The winner has now a flawless record from his six starts but this was by far his toughest assignment. Blue Point holds the track record here, while Harry Angel had chased him home last month here before going on to set his own benchmark at Haydock.
Harry Angel knows only one way of running and he burst out of the starting gates under Kirby. Coolmore have got their tactics spot on in most Group 1 races this season in which they have had multiple runners, and Seamie Heffernan kept Harry Angel honest by harrying him all the way on his inside aboard Intelligence Cross.
Moore anchored Caravaggio in seventh and put his mount to sleep, but flicked the switch with 400 metres to go. The engine took a moment to hum and it looked for a moment that the Commonwealth Cup would be shared by the two Godolphin runners. Moore had other ideas, however, and when he swooped on Harry Angel’s inside, it was all over.
“I think that was a fairly exceptional race and he beat two very good horses,” Moore said. “There was quite a headwind and it had been hard to make up ground all day. These horses have a serious amount of talent and it was the first time Caravaggio had been asked a serious question.”
Moore secured a precious Group 1 double 40 minutes later when Winter became the first filly since Mark Johnston’s Attraction to add the Coronation Cup to wins in the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas.
Johnston had provided the UAE with its only significant victory of the day earlier when Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed’s Permian showed he has an extraordinary constitution when he landed the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes
After tenacious victories this week by Big Orange in Thursday’s Gold Cup, and Highland Reel in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Permian is another who clearly wears his heart on his sleeve.
It was Permian’s 12th career start, and his sixth this season after his run in to 10th in the Derby three weeks ago. Johnston had said last week that the colt would run only if he was bucking and kicking in his stable. Some buck. Some kick.
“I am enormously pleased with him,” Johnston said of his 40th Royal Ascot winner. “We had a blank year 12 months ago, one of the first since 1994, so it was a bit of a relief to get on the scoresheet.”
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