“I’m just super-relieved, really,” Oisin Murphy said after winning the 1,000 Guineas on Mawj here on Sunday. For slightly different reasons, the winning trainer’s primary emotion was probably much the same.
Murphy, Flat racing’s champion jockey for three seasons running until 2021, is finding his way back to the top of the sport after a 14-month ban ruled him out in 2022. Saeed bin Suroor, by contrast, is a former champion who has never been away, but has effectively been forced to watch from the sidelines in recent years as Charlie Appleby, who also trains exclusively for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, has turned out one champion after another.
Suroor even took temporary charge of Appleby’s Moulton Paddocks training complex a decade ago when the previous occupant, Mahmood al-Zarooni, was banned for his role in a steroid-doping scandal. But while Appleby, al-Zarooni’s former assistant, has won four British Classics since taking over the licence in 2013, Mawj was Suroor’s first since Mastery took the St Leger in 2009.
“Me and Charlie are a good team,” Suroor said, “and he was with me for a long time before becoming the best trainer now. We’re good friends and have the best horses in the country, maybe even the world in our stables. We will sometimes have luck like with Mawj today, she’s a nice filly.”
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For much of the way on Sunday, and even as Mawj passed the furlong pole with a narrow lead, it seemed more likely that Suroor’s Classic drought would continue. The field split soon after the start, with Mawj and Murphy travelling easily at the head of the stands-side group, but a quarter of a mile out, Tahiyra, the 6-4 favourite, eased towards them and then almost alongside.
Chris Hayes, on Tahiyra, was apparently just waiting for the right moment to unleash the turn of foot that earned Tahiyra the status of champion juvenile filly last season. But the decisive burst did not appear and Mawj, the 9-1 fourth-favourite, was still half a length up at the line.
“She was really well prepared,” Murphy said. “I think it’s 20 degrees, there are lots of people here and she walked around [the paddock] like she was half-asleep.
“I was worried there wasn’t anything with early pace around me … so I rode her a bit like Frankie [Dettori] rode Chaldean [in Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas], I set my own fractions on the wing with no cover. I was able to sit on her down past the three and keep her going to the line. It really was a very good training performance, she hasn’t run in about three months and I got a real buzz out of that.”
Mawj completed a double for Murphy on the day after Running Lion’s success in the Pretty Polly Stakes saw the daughter of Roaring Lion cut to single-figure odds for the Oaks at Epsom next month. Ante-post punters should be wary, though, as she could yet run over 10 furlongs in the French equivalent instead.
Worcester 1.15 Pottlerath 1.45 Give Me A Moment 2.15 Solstice Saint 2.45 Idealdes Villerets 3.15 Komedy Kicks 3.50 Czech Her Out 4.20 Everyonesgame 4.50 Samtara
Ayr 1.55 Torvar 2.25 Freedom Flyer 2.55 Zahee (nap) 3.30 Abu Royal 4.05 Little Muddy 4.35 Rock Of England 5.10 Uberrima Fides
Southwell 2.05 Apache Star 2.35 Yorkshire Terrier 3.05 Pittsburg 3.40 Seal Of Solomon 4.15 Marksman Queen 4.45 Ticket To Alaska 5.20 Kath’s Toyboy
Windsor 4.40 Destiny’s Spirit 5.15 Revenue 5.45 Villazon 6.15 Nothing To Sea 6.45 Hy Brasil 7.15 Bang On The Bell 7.50 Dubai Souq (nb) 8.25 Racing Demon
Newcastle 5.35 Book Of Tales 6.05 Calcutta Dream 6.35 Coppice 7.05 Odds Socks Havana 7.40 Another Angel 8.10 Sidney’s Son 8.45 Hilary’s Boy
“[Roaring Lion] was a wonderful horse,” John Gosden, who trained them both, said. “He actually won the Dante in tremendous style and he went to the Derby, and he was the last one off the bridle and didn’t see the mile-and-a-half out. So it will be very interesting with this filly whether she’s more Prix de Diane [over a mile and a quarter] or whether she’s more of an Oaks, mile-and-a-half filly.
“The jockey’s first reaction was probably to stay at a mile and a quarter, and I’m always interested in what they say when they come back straight away and not when they’ve had time to think about it.”
Lingfield 1.50 Beau Roc 2.20 Devizes 2.50 Antiphon (nb) 3.25 Solanna 4.00 Imperiousity 4.35 Lion Tamer 5.05 Enough Already
Ffos Las 2.00 Manorbank 2.30 Fanfaron Dino 3.00 Bobalot 3.35 Touchy Feely 4.10 Dicey Rielly 4.45 Hungry Hill 5.15 Tarahumara 5.48 Good Friday Fairy
Fakenham 2.10 Way Out 2.40 Jigginstown King 3.10 Lighthouse Mill 3.45 Gavin 4.20 Flying Verse 4.55 For Rita
Ludlow 4.50 Pyramid Place 5.25 Ooh Betty 5.55 Zafar 6.25 Marettimo 7.00 Carole’s Pass (nap) 7.30 Flash Gorcombe 8.00 Brave Jen 8.30 Mary
Newcastle 5.40 Fifty Sent 6.10 Crystal Mariner 6.45 Snafiya 7.15 Wasdale 7.45 Sugar Baby 8.15 Eyes 8.45 Windsor Pass
Running Lion was cut to around 8-1 for the Oaks, before several significant trials for the Epsom Classic over the next two weeks, including the Cheshire Oaks at Chester and York’s Musidora Stakes.
