3 minute read

Jim Crowley once again displayed his talents in the saddle when delivering Al Aasy to perfection in the feature Betfred Rose of Lancaster Stakes at Haydock.

The six-year-old bounced back to something near his best with a facile Listed success at Newbury last month and was produced to perfection by Crowley at Haydock to make it back-to-back wins this afternoon. 

Al Aasy travelled notably well into proceedings but still had plenty to do when entering the final furlong under Crowley, sitting in a share of third. However, Crowley kept his cool and the Shadwell-owned 6/5 favourite picked up smartly, wearing down the Karl Burke's El Drama to score by a snug neck at the line.

Maureen Haggas, who is wife and assistant trainer to William Haggas, said: "He was good today, both horse and jockey were good. Jim said he was cool throughout, and it just fell apart in front of him a bit, so the horse had to work. To his credit he did, and he got there.

"He's had his ups and downs, but he's always been a talented horse and I think bringing him back to a mile and a quarter has been a good thing. He travels through the race well and he really looked like he was enjoying himself today.

"He's been perhaps unfairly criticised, but since we've had him gelded, we've never really classed him as ungenuine. He's been a bit unfortunate once or twice, though before he was gelded, he was definitely thinking about other things and since it has helped him. It's given him a label and it's perhaps just taken a little while to drop it.

"Next steps are for William to work out! He's won Group 3 races before and he's been competitive at Group 1 level before and although he's old he's a bit like Hamish in that he hasn't got many miles on the clock.

"If you look after these horses they'll keep going and if they're enjoying it, they'll keep going because they haven't been over-worked.

"Jim was great and he's getting the hang of him. It sounds a silly thing to say, but you've got to kid him into it, and he was brilliant at that. He said that it wasn't the horse's fault that the race rather fell apart in front of him, and he just had to help him out, which he did. As a pair, they were very good."

Winning jockey Jim Crowley added: "That was nice. He's getting his confidence again and it's good to get him back. He's a horse who likes to follow and to be honest the race didn't go that smoothly; I don't think we went that quick, but it worked out okay in the end."

Elsewhere on the card, stablemate Kathab (11-2) ensured that Haggas began the card with a 13-1 double when impressing to win the opening mile Betfred 'Play Fred's £5 Million' Handicap.

The son of Kingman got off the mark in good style at Ripon last month and he was in similar form here, travelling into the race smoothly under Jim Crowley before picking up proceedings in the final furlong.

Maureen Haggas said: "He's getting the hang of it at last. He looked promising on his first run at Newmarket [in April], and he's not really progressed, but his last couple of races have been better.

"He was really good today, he took everything in his stride and settled better, so he's getting the hang of things.

"We'll see what the handicapper does, he doesn't do anything quickly, so he needs a strong pace and hopefully in the bigger fields and a stronger race, he'll get that. The way he's run today suggests we've got the option of stepping him up in trip, so we'll see how we go."