28 July 2020

Tomorrow’s Dream continues good run for title-chasing Marquand

28 July 2020

Tom Marquand maintained the pressure on Flat jockeys’ championship leader Oisin Murphy after reaching the 50-winner mark for the season aboard Tomorrow’s Dream at Goodwood.

Having celebrated a double at Windsor on Monday, the 2015 champion apprentice was quickly back among the winners thanks to the length-and-a-half victory secured by the William Haggas-trained three-year-old in the British European Breeders’ Fund EBF Fillies’ Handicap.

Marquand said of reaching the milestone: “It is great hitting that number of winners after two months. I’m just trying to ride as many winners as possible and hopefully I can be there or thereabouts in the championship.

“It is going well enough at the moment and hopefully it will continue for the next few months.”

As for Haggas, he was pleased to see the daughter of Oasis Dream return to winning ways having finished second last time out at Newbury.

He said of the 11-2 chance: “She is improving all the time. She got in a good position and picked up well when Tom asked her. I was very happy with that.

“She was a little bit unfortunate at Newbury. She got out in enough time, but she had to weave her way through. The horse that won the race stayed on the rail and that proved to be an advantage. She has improved better this year and is doing well physically.

“She won over seven furlongs at Chepstow and though she got beaten over a mile at Newbury you can see she clearly gets it.

“As always with these well bred fillies you are looking at the aim of getting some black type, but she has a bit to go yet.”

Maydanny – a son of Dubawi out of Attraction – returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion with a five-length victory over Sky Defender to give trainer Mark Johnston a one-two in the Unibet You’re On Handicap.

Assistant trainer Charlie Johnston said of the 5-1 favourite: “He has always been a horse held in high regard because of his pedigree. He was quite difficult in his early years and was gelded in the winter last year and that made a big difference to the horse.

“He came out and ran well at Yarmouth, then he ran well on the wrong side of the track at Ascot.

“We left Newmarket scratching our heads as we didn’t know why he ran such a bad race. Back on better ground under a positive ride over this trip he proved he was well handicapped, which we thought he was before Newmarket.”

Only Spoofing came from off the pace to grab the Qatar Handicap over five furlongs.

Jedd O’Keeffe’s six-year-old picked off Acclaim The Nation and won by a neck in the hands of Kieran O’Neill.

Only Spoofing (14-1) usually races prominently, but with speedsters like Caspian Prince and Ornate in the field, connections decided to ride him with more restraint and it paid off.

“We made a speculative entry and when we saw it wasn’t going to be a big field we let him take his chance,” said O’Keeffe.

“We were slightly worried about the track. His best form has been on stiff tracks over five furlongs.

“When we went through the race we could see there was loads of pace, so we decided not to ride him quite as aggressively as we normally would and pick up the pieces later on. The jockey executed it beautifully.”

O’Keeffe would love to run Only Spoofing in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster in September if he is rated high enough.

“He’s won off 83 today so he’s not getting us into the top-class races, but he’ll go back up the ratings and we’ll be looking up the nice handicaps,” said the North Yorkshire trainer.

“The Portland is always a race I’ve wanted to run him in with it being five and a half furlongs. We didn’t get in last year.

“That would be a target if he is sufficiently high and there’s a race for him at Ascot. He won a nice race there last year. We’ll probably try to get him back there if we can.”

Alkumait built on a promising debut to get off the mark in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Stakes.

The Marcus Tregoning-trained colt was only beaten a length when fourth at Newbury and showed he had learnt a lot as he comfortably disposed of the opposition.

Jim Crowley brought Alkumait (5-4 favourite) to make his challenge on the outside and he produced a good turn of foot to pull clear.

Tawleed took second place, two and a half lengths away, to give owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum the first two.

Tregoning said: “It was a good performance. He’s come on nicely for his first run and we were delighted with him, obviously.

“I hope he’s a nice prospect, but we’ll stay at six for now. He has plenty of speed.

“I don’t think we’ll run him back quick. He’s had two quick runs so we don’t need to.”

The winning team were denied a double when Asiaaf had to settle for second place behind Believe In Love in the British European Breeders Fund EBF Fillies’ Handicap.

Asiaaf looked set to score when she hit the front in the centre of the course over a furlong out, but Believe In Love (11-1) found plenty when switched to the far rail by Andrea Atzeni.

Roger Varian’s charge made her stamina count as she crossed the line two lengths to the good.

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