Racing
Ingham triumph puts Yorkshire in Doncaster mix
Yorkshire has underlined his star qualities with a win in Sydney’s biggest race of the summer.
Tom Charlton was five years old when John O'Shea landed his first Group win in the 2000 Villiers Stakes, but the training partners were celebrating together when Yorkshire took out the corresponding race at Randwick on Saturday.
It was O'Shea's fourth success in the summer feature, now known as The Ingham (1600m), and Charlton's first in an official capacity as co-trainer, although he was on the staff when O'Shea last captured it in 2022.
"I remember we had one-two a few years ago with Kirwan's Lane and Lion's Roar so very special," Charlton said.
Yorkshire ($3.90 fav) looks special in his own right, the five-year-old taking his record to eight wins from 11 starts in Saturday's $2 million mile, surging to the front at the top of the straight to score by three-quarters of a length over Estadio Mestalla ($9.50) with last year's victor Robusto ($26) another 1-1/4 lengths away third.
It was the culmination of a campaign that began on the wrong foot when Yorkshire finished last in The Hunter (1300m) at Newcastle and was subsequently diagnosed with heart arrhythmia.
His trainers worked around the clock to get him back on track and he rebounded to claim the Festival Stakes (1500m) before becoming the first horse since Monton in 2011 to claim the Festival Stakes-The Ingham double.
"We were in a spot of bother after his first-up run and full credit to everyone and the processes that took place," Charlton said.
"We were confident we were going to bounce back, but whether we were going to get to a grand final four weeks later able to produce a performance like that was up for debate.
"His record sums him up as a horse. Up the running there, he was having a look around. I think he's not the finished article yet, which is exciting."
The winner of The Ingham earns a ballot exemption for the Doncaster Mile (1600m) in the autumn and while conceding Yorkshire will need to raise the bar again, Charlton says it's a worthwhile goal.
"He will have to keep improving but it's the type of race we will look towards, for sure," he said.
The gelding gave Zac Lloyd the first leg of a feature race double, the young hoop adding the Razor Sharp Handicap (1200m) aboard Weeping Woman for Joe Pride a race later.
Lloyd echoed Charlton's sentiment that Yorkshire was open to improvement but as the regular rider of stablemate and Group 1 winner Linebacker, he was unsure which might make most appeal in the autumn.
"The O'Shea-Charlton team has another good horse (Linebacker) who fits that profile, so I'll leave it up to them and whatever they want me to ride, I'll be more than happy to ride," Lloyd said.
Gringotts started a $4.40 second pick, finishing eleventh, but jockey Nash Rawiller felt his run was still meritorious.
"Great effort . . . I felt on the firmer ground he couldn't show the turn of foot he's shown his previous two runs."
O'Shea's other wins in the race came with Grey And Gold (2000) and On A High (2003).
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