Luca Cumani’s daughter, Francesca, was five when the trainer recorded his first win in the Park Hill Stakes, with Alma Ata in 1988. Three decades later she was asking the questions as an ITV pundit here on Thursday after her father’s sixth success in the race with God Given, which came three years to the day after the previous Group Two victory on his long and distinguished CV.
Cumani’s drought at Group One level is longer still and dates from July 2015, when Postponed took the King George at Ascot. A few months later Postponed’s owner, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, moved all 35 of his horses from Cumani’s Bedford Lodge to Roger Varian’s stable less than a mile away in Newmarket, since when the 42-season veteran has struggled for success in the best races.
God Given, though, will offer her trainer a realistic chance to add to a total of more than 50 Group One and Grade One wins when she heads to Ascot in October for the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.
She had several lengths to find with the Varian-trained Pilaster, the 6-5 favourite for the Park Hill, on their form in the Lillie Langtry Stakes at Goodwood in August but she seemed to benefit from a slow early pace. That gave her a chance to use her finishing speed inside the final quarter-mile and then hold off Horseplay and Pilaster by a neck and the same.
“If she didn’t win today we’d have gone to France for a Group Two but now there’s no point,” Luca Cumani said. “Her last race will be at Ascot and then she’ll probably go to stud and make beautiful babies.”
Aidan O’Brien picked up his third juvenile Group Two event of the British season as Fleeting, a 12-1 chance, stayed on to win the May Hill Stakes. The winner appreciated every inch of the one-mile trip and will now be stepped up to Group One company, either in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket or the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp on Arc day in early October.
Doncaster 1.50 Laugh Aloud 2.25 Well Done Fox 3.00 Ben Vrackie (nb) 3.35 Saunter 4.05 Sangarius 4.40 Buffalo River 5.10 Al Erayg 5.45 Loveisili
Chester 2.00 Indomitable 2.35 Pass The Gin 3.10 Dance Legend 3.40 Misty Birnam (nap) 4.15 Baileys Artist 4.45 Jabbaar 5.15 Fire Tree
Sandown 2.15 Reticent Angel 2.50 Victors Lady 3.25 Aussie Nugget 3.55 Knife Edge 4.30 Absolutely So 5.00 Sayem 5.30 Astrologist
Salisbury 3.30 Cricklewood Green 4.00 Jash 4.35 Dudley’s Boy 5.05 Headland 5.40 Feel Glorious 6.10 Silver Swift 6.40 Swift And Sure 7.10 Foxtrot Lady
