3 minute read

Charlie Appleby resumed a familiar position in the Newmarket winners' enclosure when Dance Sequence stayed on strongly to claim the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes.

The well-bred daughter of Dubawi overcame considerable greenness and inexperience to score on the July Course on debut and connections were keen to give the filly a break to strengthen up subsequently.

There was some early drama when longshot Bellarchi anticipated the break and nearly unshipped jockey Ollie Stammers. The eventual winner, Dance Sequence was by no means sharply away herself, but William Buick was more than happy to bide his time towards the rear of the field.

The pace began to lift with two furlongs to run and the recently purchased Juddmonte-owned Skellet quickened up to take the lead entering the final furlong. The pair set down to fight it out and although the easy-to-back 4/1 chance Dance Sequence looked to have the Ralph Beckett-trained filly well covered at one stage, she was made to fight right through the line by the 7/4 market leader.

Star Music finished a further three lengths adrift in third, whilst winning rider William Buick was completing an opening 20/1 double after landing the opener onboard Inquisitively.

Charlie Appleby said: "She was impressive on her debut and similarly to her debut, William has had confidence going into both races. He said I'm going to drop her in, but I said be careful as there is a tailwind and don't let them get free on the front end. 

"He has got such confidence in this filly that he dropped her in again today and I thought at one stage he might not be happy with the position he was in, but she answers every question. He looked after her through the dip and up the hill, but she picks up well when she does it. 

"We purposely gave her a gap as she is a big, scopey filly. After Newmarket, people would have been saying you could have been going here there and everywhere, but as you are all well aware we are in the process of rebuilding our team and these sorts of horses are not easy to come by.  

"We have purposely given her time to hopefully come here and get this assignment done and put her away for the winter and dream about running her in some Guineas trials next year.

"She has a bit more daylight to go yet before we look at her as a proper serious 1000 Guineas contender, but she is on the right path. She will get further most definitely. 

"I said to William if we ran a nice race and wasn't fortunate enough to win, I was only going to look at going to the Montrose and stepping her up in trip, but we don't need to do that now." 

Reflecting on a campaign which has seen the likes of stable stars Modern Games, Hurricane Lane and Adayar all retired the Newmarket-based Godolphin handler admitted that he is pleased with how the rebuilding process is going back at his Moulton Paddocks base. 

He added: "It is not tough as this is the game you are in and if you think you have cracked it you better go find another sport. 

"We knew ourselves that this season was going to be a bit more challenging on the retirement of some of those older horses as they are always the pillar of the yard. 

"We are confident we have got some nice two-year-olds coming through. When I say nice two-year-olds as soon as I say that people say I've got a yard full of two-year-olds. You are never going to have a yard full, and you are lucky if you can pick out half a dozen. 

"I'm hopeful that we have some nice two-year-olds that will progress through the winter. I don't see a 2000 Guineas colt in there is the honest answer as you would have seen that back in July as that would have been more our Superlative type of horse. 

"As respects to some of the pedigrees and physicals we have got they were always going to be three-year-olds and hopefully she will be one of the sharper ones in the fillies' division and we look forward to some colts in the middle-distance division."