karlpejera: Ile De Re lands Northumberland Plate for Donald McCain at Newcastle

Sabado, Hunyo 30, 2012

Ile De Re lands Northumberland Plate for Donald McCain at Newcastle

? Well-backed favourite hangs on for gutsy win in heavy ground
? Winner is first to land big-race double since Attivo in 1974

Ile De Re, who won the Chester Cup on testing ground in early May, drew on his deep reserves of stamina and courage once again at Newcastle on Saturday as he stayed on strongly to win the John Smith's Northumberland Plate and complete a double that was last achieved in 1974.

Jim Crowley, who often encountered heavy ground at Newcastle in his former career as a jump jockey, committed for home in the desperate conditions on Ile De Re, the 5-2 favourite, but while Icon Dream ? ridden by Graham Lee, another former jump jockey ? and Crackentorp tried to raise a challenge, neither could find as much as the winner.

"I used to ride a lot of jump winners round here so it's a race I've always wanted to win," Crowley said. "We got caught wide early on which wasn't where I wanted to be but I let him bowl along down the back and used his stamina and it's won him the race. I wanted to make a lot of use of him from a long way out to take the sting out of the others."

Donald McCain, who took over from Ian Williams as Ile De Re's trainer just a few weeks before his win at Chester, has now saddled him for a double that was last completed by Attivo, in the colours of Sir Peter O'Sullevan.

"He got stuck out a bit wide and a bit far back and then got a bit keen," McCain said, "so Jim let him get on with it. It meant he was in front a long way from home but our horses tend to be in that position often and whenever one has come to him he's gone again."

Lee had earlier recorded his first Group-race success since switching from the winter code when successful on Maarek in the Chipchase Stakes. The winner, who is trained in Ireland by David Nagle, was returning to Britain just a week after finishing sixth in the Wokingham Stakes on the final day of Royal Ascot, and found a good finishing kick in the gruelling conditions to win by two lengths.

"He's a very tough horse and he just loves this soft ground," Nagle said. "We'll enter him in all the six-furlong Group races coming up while the ground is like this, as he handles it so well. He could go to Haydock for the Group [Sprint Cup], or he could go to France, but he won't go anywhere unless the ground is soft."

Paul Hanagan, the champion jockey for the last two seasons, was taken to hospital for x-rays on his arm after being injured in a fall at Newmarket.

Hanagan, who is now retained to ride as the number one jockey for leading owner Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, was riding No Dominion, who clipped the heels of Viewpoint, ridden by Richard Hughes, near the halfway point of the Tattersalls Millions Cup.

"We've heard that he might have cracked his elbow," Angus Gold, Sheikh Hamdan's racing manager, said later. "Either that or it's badly bruised. As well as that, he's got a dead leg. If it's the elbow, it could be serious and that will be a shame as he's just getting going."

The winner of the race was John Gosden's Michelangelo, who runs in the colours of Bjorn Nielsen and could now attempt to emulate the success of the same owner's Masked Marvel in the St Leger at Doncaster in September. William Buick rode a confident race on the 5-6 favourite, and swept through the field readily before stretching three lengths clear at the line.

"It's fast ground and the distance isn't ideal for mile-and-a-half bred horses," Gosden said. "He did it well and I will look at either the Gordon Stakes [at Glorious Goodwood] or the Great Voltigeur [at York's Ebor meeting]."

Libranno, one of the leading juveniles of the 2010 season, won the Criterion Stakes for the second year running under a confident front-running ride by Richard Hughes. Hoof It, who was placed at Group One level last season and the favourite for this Group Three event, was only sixth.

"He wasn't showing any sparkle earlier in the season, but he's back in top form now," Richard Hannon Jr, representing his father, said. "I'd say there's a good chance he'll come back here for the July Cup now.

"There are other options as well like the Prix Maurice de Gheest [at Deauville] and a couple of races in Turkey."

Greg Wood