TRAINER Hugo Palmer expects there to be “no hiding place” at Goodwood today as Galileo Gold bids to continue his fantastic season in the Qatar Sussex Stakes, the feature of the five day festival of racing.
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Having failed to catch English Guineas victor Galileo Gold at the Royal meeting there was to be no chance of that happening again as Ryan Moore placed his mount on the heels of the Hugo Palmer-trained Galileo Gold who was sent straight to the front under Frankie Dettori.
Ribchester, a further short head away, came with a late rattle wide on the track to get involved in the finish but had to settle for third. “My horse was a lot happier back on good ground today, and I think he’ll be even better on faster”.
“He has so much pace just to go where you want him when you need him”.
Frankie Dettori had Galileo Gold up near the front throughout at Ascot and the son of Paco Boy kept on stoutly, much as he had done at Newmarket in the Guineas.
O’Brien has now won the English 1,000 Guineas, the Oaks, the Gold Cup, the Falmouth Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Sussex Stakes, while Al Shaqab have grabbed the 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes with Galileo Gold and the Coronation Stakes with Qemah. £560,200. Lifetime Record: G1SW-Fr, 6-3-2-1, £996,217.
At the start it was Galileo Gold that went to the front to set the pace. Yet all the information the bods at Rosegreen had suggested he was made of the correct stuff and after a comfortable intro when third on testing ground over this trip at Leopardstown Apr. 6 he was able to make a sizeable jump when scoring by nine lengths on the same terrible surface in a Navan maiden 11 days later. Awtaad (Ire) (Cape Cross ) was placed on his outer to keep him in and with Frankie Dettori looking so comfortable on the Guineas hero up ahead it had the feel of another hard-luck story halfway up the straight. But Awtaad lost touch with Galileo Gold, opening a seam for Moore, who steered The Gurkha outside Galileo Gold and wore him down in the final furlong, though the leader fought on gamely. Responding gamely to gain enough rope as James Doyle brought a real tune out of Ribchester to his left, the line came in time for him to add his name to a relentless succession of Ballydoyle group 1 winners. “Ryan gave him a masterful ride and waited and waited-he knew exactly where he was at”. He won a maiden for me very impressively at Newbury but, as I said before the Derby, I think a lot of people got a bit carried away with that win and the fact that he is so well-bred didn’t help the levels of expectation. He’s very courageous, which is why he ran the race he did when we took him out of his comfort zone at Sandown.
He said: “It has been tough on him”. There are the mile races in France and the [G1] Champion S.
I honestly don’t know what would have happened at Ascot had The Gurkha jumped better and had a trouble-free run, but what I do know is that Galileo Gold is a top-class miler and I am not underestimating him for a minute.
“I dare say there’s going to be more matches to savour”.
“We talked about a pacemaker but we decided against it and in the end we acted as the pacemaker”.
Atzeni said: “He put the race to bed really quickly”. Of course, Ascot didn’t go to plan and I was disappointed that he didn’t go on and win the Eclipse, though again that was again a messy and unsatisfactory race for me and the ground blunted his speed. The negatives are that she ran poorly at Newcastle last time and I think fast ground would not be in her favour.
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“It’s three years ago that James came over for the first time and we seemed to hit it off pretty well”, Hills said.
