English/Ire
Murphy masters Golden Gate rivals on Quai De Bethune
Oisin Murphy claimed a fifth handicap winner of the meeting when propelling the 12/1 chance Quai De Bethune to success in the Golden Gates Stakes.
The son of Persian King did not look comfortable early on but, once switched out in the straight, kicked in the turbos to collar the 11/4 favourite Seraph Gabriel on the line.
French challenger Best Secret, who was sent off a 4/1 chance, finished a length further back in third.
A fourth winner of the meeting for Andrew Balding, Quai De Bethune was a promising third in the London Gold Cup at Newbury on his penultimate start.
Balding said: "I am very pleased. We have had this race in mind for Quai De Bethune for a good while now, but you need everything to go right. He was given an outstanding ride, and we just got the margins at the end of the race."
Following his fifth winner of the meeting, Murphy added: "He found the ground a little fast maybe. I was not going early. Rossa [Ryan, on the favourite] and I were both struggling, but we were able to save a little bit of ground on the turn.
"Rossa cleverly managed to keep me in a little bit in the straight, which delayed my challenge, and I wasn't sure if I had won. The cameraman usually knows because they can watch the replay closely and the camera never came off Seraph Gabriel.
"He is a Persian King – he is slow to mature and getting to a nice level now. The lads at home have done a great job with him. This is a good race to win with the horse, and I am delighted. Thank you to all the owners, trainers and everyone who has supported me [this week]."
On the runner-up, Ralph Beckett, who also trained the seventh-horse Aurel, added: "Everything went right, we just didn't win!"
Get It grabs Wokingham win
George Baker's speedy Get It proved the ace in the pack once more in a big-field handicap when making virtually every yard of the running in this year's Wokingham Stakes.
Quickly out the gates under Seamie Heffernan, last year's Stewards' Cup hero showed electric speed before being very gritty in the finish to fend off a late thrust from the 3/1 market leader More Thuner by a head.
Ten Pounds fared best of the low-drawn horses in third, while Holkham Bay (28/1) came up the stands' rail to grab fourth.
Baker said: "We had a magical day in August at Goodwood, and to have another one on this stage is pretty cool! Patsy [Cosgrave, regular jockey] is sadly missing out on this, which is a great shame because he has been such a massive part of our team. Seamie breezed the horse a couple of times in Bahrain and, with Patsy suspended, he was the obvious one.
"Seamie has given him an absolute peach. He has basically given him a Pat Cosgrave ride, which is just let him roll, and he will come back to you. Then let him go again, and he did that. It is a long way home, that final furlong, but what a thrill.
"We bought him relatively cheaply at the horses-in-training sale a couple of years ago. He has won in Racing League, Bahrain, a Stewards' Cup, and the Wokingham. How many horses have won the Stewards' Cup and Wokingham? Not many. He is a dude of a horse and credit to everyone involved. He has been a star."
On his recent move to Epsom, Baker added: "It was massive for us, and we hit the track running, with 16 winners in the first 11 or 12 weeks. We have had a quiet month – a few of those horses have been winning and going up the handicap – but we are right back on track.
"This is massive for us, massive for Downs House and hopefully huge for Epsom. If we can do just a little bit to get that place up and running as a training centre, there are fantastic trainers there – Jim Boyle, Simon Down, Michael Attwater, Pat Phelan. If we can all do something special at Epsom, it is just round the corner from London, it should happen."
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