Christophe Soumillon produced Carrytheone (14/1) with a devastating run to win the Balmoral Handicap (sponsored by QIPCO) at Ascot.
Well-supported favorite Thunder Run was in the lead throughout but the three-year-old faltered as he came under pressure from challengers on either side.
Lattam was on the inside but Soumillon brought out Carrytheone with a long, sustained run down the middle of the stretch and his horse responded readily, overtaking the leaders and running on to score by two lengths.
Lattam finished second, Witch Hunter third and Thunder Run fourth.
“He didn’t jump that well, so I was last in the first part of the race and I wanted to make sure I didn’t have bad luck again in the race,” Soumillon said.
“So I took him out and came into the stands,” he continued.
“He put in a lot of effort because it’s not easy to get out so early and when I got to the front he kept going until the end, so he’s a very generous horse. I just hoped he didn’t give up in the last furlong because the ground is very deep today. The good thing was that I really relaxed him in the first part of the race.
“So happy. It’s always very difficult to win a race like this and I finished a great day with a good win.”
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Trainer Michael Bell was not at Ascot so it was left to owner Stuart Mizon to give the post-race debriefing. He said: “We refreshed him for six weeks at the end of August and September with the aim of getting ready for the big handicap two weeks ago.
“He didn’t run very well there, missed the break by ten lengths, still finished sixth and still showed a lot at home, so we thought we’d come here.”
“He won very well today – Christophe drove him brilliantly and I said to Nick (Bell) afterwards that he deserves to come back to the group company after this. So he’ll take a vacation now and come back in the new year” and we’ll make a plan from there.
“We bought him pretty cheap at the Horses-In-Training Sale last year. Nick and I had a relatively short list that we went through, focused on him and worked really hard to get him. I think we bought him very well and he paid us back many times over. He came third at Royal Ascot so we’ve been there, we’ve had a lot of really big days, it’s absolutely fantastic.”
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