Peter Chapple-Hyam has never been one to disguise his feelings and his attempts to do so after the defeat of Authorized last Saturday were not entirely convincing. We found out why yesterday, as the trainer reverted to characteristically expansive mood after a July Stakes victory that fostered further classic dreams.
Even as Winker Watson was elevated close to favouritism for next year’s 2,000 Guineas, Chapple-Hyam was obliged to revisit painful memories. Admitting that he had barely managed to control his feelings after the Coral-Eclipse – “I had to walk away” – he also revealed that Frankie Dettori, absent yesterday with a shoulder injury, had apologised for his tactics.
Chapple-Hyam had left Sandown abruptly and spent Sunday alone with dark thoughts. “I’d had Frankie on apologising to me for not coming up the stands’ side as I’d told him to do,” he explained. “But he’s a brilliant jockey and he’d done what seemed right by staying with George Washington. It was just a mess and we’d all underestimated the winner.”
Quickly revived, by the relentless pace of his sport, Chapple-Hyam had sunnier thoughts in the elegant crush of a record crowd of 15,102 on Newmarket’s Ladies’ Day. Authorized had cantered yesterday morning and his trainer still hopes to run him in the King George. And now he has another young meteor on his hands.
Winker Watson’s unbeaten record looked sure to end as he still trailed his 12 rivals with two furlongs to run. Slowly away, and isolated by his draw in stall one, the Piccolo colt required all the strength and conviction of Jimmy Fortune to conjure a shorthead success from River Proud.
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Fortune publicly berated himself for getting “a lot further back than I wanted to be” but to win from there, carrying a penalty for his Ascot victory, showed Winker Watson in flattering light. “I’ve said for a while that he’s a very good horse and now maybe people will listen,” Chapple-Hyam said, nominating the Prix Morny at Deauville next month for his next run.
Ryan Moore, whose daring initiative won the Eclipse for Notnowcato, landed another group success for Sir Michael Stoute in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. Papal Bull had run limply at Sandown last time out, initially bewildering the champion trainer and accounting for his generous price of 11-1 yesterday.
“Last year, he had form as good as any three-year-old,” Stoute said. “He had us guessing at Sandown but he was sore behind afterwards and we were relieved to find a reason.”
Moore, while conceding that the emphatic winner is “a bit quirky”, believes he is “definitely up to group one standard”. He is not entered in the King George, though, and another horse sure to miss that race is Sixties Icon. The well-backed favourite repeated his timid display in the Coronation Cup, perplexing his trainer, Jeremy Noseda. “I can’t understand why he isn’t performing,” he said.
Mark Johnson felt the same about Hearthstead Maison when he finished last over two miles at Royal Ascot but the horse carried top weight to a lucrative success over six furlongs shorter in the Kleinwort Benson Stakes. “He’s a puzzle, but I think we now know his trip and I can scrap his entry for the Ebor,” Johnston said.
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Henry Cecil’s resurgent season continued with a game win for Tranquil Tiger in the Bahrain Trophy and the trainer was notably upbeat about Light Shift’s bid for an Oaks double in Ireland on Sunday. “I think she’s improved in every way since Epsom and there will be no excuses other than bottomless ground,” Cecil declared.