3 minute read

Andrew Balding’s stable star Coltrane continued his love affair with Ascot when fighting on grimly to make it back-to-back triumphs in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes.

As expected, Quickthorn set out to make all the running under a positive Tom Marquand but unlike when a facile winner at Goodwood last season, his rivals were keen to keep him well within range throughout the two-mile Group 3 prize.

Quickthorn turned for home with a slender advantage but Hughie Morrison's gelded quickly faded under pressure as Coltrane and Sweet William both picked up the tempo in the Ascot straight.

The unexposed John and Thady Gosden-trained contender looked for all the while like he was about the master last year's Sagaro hero Coltrane, but with a love affair for Ascot and first-time cheekpieces added to his armoury, Andrew Balding's star stayer continued to fight on courageously down towards the rail.

However, there would be one last twist in the tail as Caius Chorister began to fly towards the centre of the track under Jamie Spencer and although David Menuisier's mare, who suffered a slight clash with Trueshan in the starting stalls, would stay on to force a photo, it would be Andrew Balding's seven-year-old who would cling on by a diminishing head to land the spoils in first-time cheekpieces under Oisin Murphy.

"I think there was a concern whether the fire was still there, but I think it certainly was," said Balding, who is now looking forward to his six-year-old attempting to go one better in the Ascot Gold Cup in June.

"I think he was in front longer than Oisin probably wanted to be, but he was really brave there at the end.

"He's a fighter and a star really. We train horses so we can come across one like him and he keeps producing.

"Maybe the cheekpieces sparked him up today, but he really looked well and maybe he just wasn't himself in Meydan. He's just come to himself now and he's a fighter.

"He loves Ascot and has run one bad race here and that's it. We'll look forward to coming back here in June.

"He does his own thing at home, which is not very much in the mornings. We'll let him do his own thing and he will train himself for the Gold Cup. We did the same last year, and he ran a stellar race, so we will try to do the same thing."