There are times when a top-class racehorse underlines its quality by stretching clear of its field and others when it is simply important to get the job done. Muhaarar, who took the Group One July Cup here on Saturday, has now done both in the space of a month and, while his desperate scramble past Tropics in the final stride was far removed from the authority of a victory at Royal Ascot last month, in its own way it was just as impressive.
Muhaarar’s cause looked hopeless as he came past the stands with half a furlong to run. He was starting to close on Tropics, who had shot clear of the field approaching the furlong pole, but seemingly all too late. He cut into Tropics’ lead all the way to the post but, even as they crossed the line, few backers of the 2-1 favourite were confident of a payout. But Muhaarar and Paul Hanagan were in front when it mattered.
“It was a bit too close for comfort, to be honest,” Hanagan said. “I felt for him because he didn’t really handle the track and especially the dip [heading towards the final furlong].
“I knew they were kind of getting away from me but at the same time I couldn’t really move because he had a leg in each county. He just didn’t handle the dip at all and the only time I could really give him his head was when he met the rising ground at the end. As soon as I let him go he really took off.”
Charlie Hills, the trainer of Muhaarar, went a month without a winner earlier in the season but has now taken his career total of Group One or Grade One successes from three to five in 22 days and, with Muhaarar racing for only the ninth time on Saturday, there is every chance of more to come.
“We’ll put him back on a nice level track now,” Hills said. “He’s in the [Prix] Maurice de Gheest [at Deauville] and the Sprint Cup at Haydock [for which he is the 2-1 favourite with Paddy Power]. I don’t think seven furlongs would be a problem for him either.”
Birchwood, the beaten odds-on favourite in a Group Two race in Ireland last month, drifted left throughout the final stages of the seven-furlong Superlative Stakes here but still crossed the line a length in front of Air Vice Marshal in a course record time for a juvenile.
Richard Fahey, Birchwood’s trainer, expects the Gimcrack Stakes at York and the Group One National Stakes back in Ireland to be among the targets considered for the colt’s next race.
Aidan O’Brien, who saddled the runner-up, said after the race that he expects Ryan Moore, his principal jockey, to need time to recover from a neck injury which he suffered when unseated in the stalls before a race here on Thursday.
“It was an unfortunate thing,” O’Brien, whose filly Ballydoyle took the maiden later on the card, said. “I think he’s going to know in the next couple of days how long it is going be. Obviously it is going to take time like every injury but, please God, he’ll be perfect.”
Fahey completed a valuable double when Rene Mathis, at 16-1, took the Bunbury Cup with Hanagan in the saddle. The John Smith’s Cup at York, meanwhile, was won by the 14-1 chance Master Carpenter, whose jockey, Philip Makin, had a treble on the card including the 4-1 victory of Out Do in the Listed City Walls Stakes.
