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It was a surprise win for Giavellotto in the 1m6f Group 2 Yorkshire Cup Stakes at York on Friday, overcoming a steward’s enquiry.
It was a surprise win for Giavellotto in the 1m6f Group 2 Yorkshire Cup Stakes at York on Friday, overcoming a steward's enquiry.
The Marco Botti-trained Giavellotto became sweaty pre-race but was settled by jockey Andrea Atzeni at the back of the field. The four-year-old made steady progress up the centre of the course on the straight and veered left when Atzeni picked up his whip in the closing stages. The experienced jockey switched hands to straighten Giavellotto up yet it was clear that the horse can be a little quirky. He crossed the line half-a-length in front of the fast-finishing Eldar Eldarov with Broome in third.
A steward's enquiry was called but the result remained the same.
The colt enjoyed a good Classic campaign, including a third in the Group 1 St Leger Stakes at Doncaster in September. Connections cited the wide draw the reason behind his disappointing seasonal reappearance when ninth in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup.
In a post-race interview with ITV Racing, Atzeni said, "He's a nice big horse, he's obviously got a lot of promise. We got into a nice rhythm, he travelled into the race. When I let him go, he picked up quite nicely. I probably got there sooner than I would have liked but he is a nice horse."
Trainer Marco Botti gave an interesting insight into the horse's future targets, "The Gold Cup [Ascot] won't be the race for him. He needs a galloping track and he ran at the track last year and I don't think it would be the race for him to be honest but we will be looking at other options.
That [the Melbourne Cup] would be the long-term plan but I need to discuss with the owner and come up with a plan. It was today that we wanted to see if he could redeem himself and see where we are."