Almeraq left an off-day at Newmarket clearly in the rearview mirror with a dominating victory in the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock Park. Last year’s winner Big Mojo flew out of the stalls and set the early pace alongside Marvelman, before the race began to get serious two furlongs out. Paborus had travelled sweetly when he arrived on the scene – but as soon as Almeraq began to assert in the hands of regular pilot Tom Marquand it was all over, as the 9-4 favourite turned on the afterburners to leave the field in his wake, powering away for a four-and-a-quarter-length victory. Victory completed a remarkable turnaround for the William Haggas-trained four-year-old, who suffered a horror fall in a sprint almost a year ago to the day which effectively ended the riding career of Jim Crowley.
“He has taken a lot of patching up from that fall at York, but to have him back in form and where he can do something like that is phenomenal,” said winning jockey Marquand, who stood in for Crowley when Almeraq won the Queen Elizabeth II Jubile Stakes at Royal Ascot. “Jim Crowley (who has taken out a training licence) has opened his next chapter which is extremely exciting and this horse opened his next chapter when he came back at Salisbury in the spring. “That was pretty impressive stuff. We all really hoped that the ground was what let him down at Newmarket in the July Cup and he got away with it at Royal Ascot, but we are only playing an opinions game.
“But he is now a dual Group One winner already and is going from strength to strength. He is a hugely exciting horse to be in partnership with and awesome for the Shadwell team.” All roads point to the Qatar Racing British Champions Sprint at Ascot on October 17 for Almeraq, but Maureen Haggas, wife of the winning trainer, is hoping they might start mapping out some targets for next year as well. “This was always his goal and then hopefully Champions Day, but hopefully he will stay in training next year, you would love to have him wouldn’t you?” she said. “That was pretty unbelievable today, but he does like the ground.
I thought what he did at Royal Ascot was pretty phenomenal on ground that he doesn’t really enjoy so now he has conditions in his favour and Tom knows him, it is exciting. “He is a really talented horse and Ascot is the obvious place to go now.” Haggas himself was at Ascot, where he said: “I was thrilled to bits. He won here on the fast ground (Royal meeting), but he looked a good horse today on the slower ground. “He settled well and picked up really well.
He’ll come back here for Champions Day.” Also at Ascot was long-standing Shadwell racing manager Angus Gold, who said: “Touch wood everything went well, he got the cover and the ground was to his liking. “The gap came at the right time and off he went. He’s beaten a couple of very good horses and it proves Newmarket was too bad to be true. “Everything went as Tom wanted it to.
He settled at the back, while at Newmarket he saw daylight and was too keen.”
