Caballo De Mar bounced back from disappointment at York with a decisive victory in the Doncaster Cup; Also on the card, Final Objective got up in the final strides to deny Crownbreaker in the Flying Childers Stakes Caballo De Mar bounced back from disappointing efforts at Royal Ascot and York to win the Betfred Howards Wright Doncaster Cup. Questions had been raised over whether the five-year-old still had the stomach for the fight after coming home last in the Gold Cup and stopping quickly before finishing fourth in the Lonsdale Cup at York. But after taking up the running a furlong from home on Town Moor under Oisín Murphy, the George Scott-trained stayer proved his doubters wrong, pulling away from Beylerbeyi to land odds of 5-6 favourite by a length and a quarter. The race had been robbed of its likely favourite after Queenstown was pulled out and there was also drama beforehand when the Emmet Mullins-trained Winday gave trouble at the start.
Having worked himself up into a sweat, he failed to the fire in the race itself, finishing a tailed off last of seven. Gimcrack runner-up Final Objective came out on top in a thrilling climax to the Carlsberg Danish Pilsner Flying Childers Stakes. Hamad Al Jehani’s juvenile has steadily improved with racing this season, most recently going down by three-quarters of a length to Arapaho Gold at York last month. Dropping back to five furlongs for the first time, the gelded son of Sioux Nation was a 9-4 favourite in the hands of James Doyle, who produced his mount with a perfectly-timed challenge to get up in the shadows of the post.
Crownbreaker finished a neck second, with Flann Sunna and long-time leader Fast Track close up in third and fourth. In The Black was unfortunate not to do better than fifth after encountering trouble in running before clipping heels and almost coming down passing the line. Doyle said: “He’s a testament to Hamad and his team because he has not been an easy conveyance whatsoever. “Faleh [Bughenaim], our Qatari jockey, has done a brilliant job with him because he rides him every day so he has to suffer on a daily basis while I only ride him now and again so I have to thank him.
See the latest horse racing news, interviews and features from Sky Sports Racing “He was a bit wayward again late on but that is just his nature, he’s a bit tricky. “I was just trying to hang on to their coattails because I was a little bit outpaced early. He’s got decent form at six and this was his first time back at five. It wasn’t a problem as he’s got more than enough speed.
“I thought he was going to win the Gimcrack but when he got out he hung his chance away and I thought he was going to do a similar thing today. He’s not easy but he’s more straightforward than he used to be.” Forbidden Fire resisted the late surge of Rock Montreal to claim top honours in the Betfred Flying Scotsman Stakes. Nine runners went to post for the Listed opener on day two of Doncaster’s St Leger Festival and the market was dominated by two Godolphin-owned colts, with Charlie Appleby’s dual winner Nabati the even-money favourite ahead of Roger Varian’s impressive Yarmouth scorer Rock Montreal at 5-2. Never miss a story with all the latest racing news, interviews and features on your phone.
Find out more Forbidden Fire, one of only two fillies in the field, was third best in the market at 9-2 off the back of a dominant debut victory at Salisbury, but showed the boys the way home under Murphy. A daughter of No Nay Never out of owner-breeder Jeff Smith’s top-class racemare Arabian Queen, Andrew Balding’s filly travelled strongly and had most of her rivals in trouble a furlong out, with Rock Montreal one of the first under pressure at the rear of the field. However, the latter began to find his stride against the near side rail late on and only missed out on victory by a head, with Nabati beaten into third.
