By Sam Turner -
The Marco Botti trainee Folgaria retained her unbeaten record with an emotional success in the Dubai Duty Free Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury.
A winner of all five of her career starts in Italy when trained by Botti’s brother Stefano, Folgaria found plenty off the bridle in the final furlong of the G3 prize for Hollie Doyle to hold off Regal Jubilee and the eyecatching Elmalka in a driving finish.
The Botti family were hit hard by the recent death of their friend, young Italian rider Stefano Churchi in Australia, and the trainer’s wife and assistant Lucie Botti, herself successful at the Dubai Carnival with two successes, was understandably touched by the victory.
“Marco went to Stefano’s (Churchi) funeral and obviously his brother trained this filly in Italy. Everyone is going to be so pleased, especially in the yard,” she said.
“You couldn’t write this, Andrea (Atzeni) winning the Sydney Cup with Stefano’s parents there and now this filly bringing Italian racing to life again, it is quite special.
“The immediate plan is likely to be the French Guineas and after that the sky is the limit, she could be an international filly and hopefully not sold too soon for us. She’s very talented, she’s the champion Italian filly and she has showed now she is good enough everywhere else.”
CHEVELEY PARK COMPENSATION
Esquire, largely unconsidered in the international markets, sprung a surprise in the G3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes at Newbury when scoring cosily for trainer David O’Meara and rider Danny Tudhope.
Victory came as compensation for Cheveley Park Stud who were runner-up with Regal Jubilee in the Fred Darling Stakes half an hour earlier.
A delighted winner handler said of the winner: “I wasn’t sure he would stay the seven (furlongs) today and I wouldn’t be certain he would get the seven at Ascot (Jersey Stakes) either, but today has opened the option of seven.
“We thought we would give it a whirl and if he didn’t stay we would come back to six, but he saw it out well so I will speak to Chris (Richardson) and Mrs (Patricia) Thompson and see what they want to do now.
“He obviously isn’t in the Guineas because he’s a gelding, but there’s always lots of nice races for a nice horse.
“We loved him before he won his maiden which was only at Hamilton and then he finished second in a Listed race at York, but he disappointed at Doncaster on heavy ground at the end of last season. I thought he could come here today and maybe finish fourth or fifth, but I wasn’t sure he would win.”
HAMISH A HOT SHOT
Hamish stretched his winning run to five by making a winning reappearance in the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes.
Having been unbeaten throughout 2023, William Haggas’ eight-year-old was anchored in the rear of the field through the early stages by Tom Marquand before starting to weave through rivals down the home straight.
The favourite was in front a furlong out but was all out inside the distance to fend off the rallying Al Qareem and outsider Salt Bay by a neck and a nose.
Trainer’s assistant Maureen Haggas said: I’m delighted and he doesn’t really do a lot in front, the ground wasn’t really soft enough, he had a 3lb penalty, but he keeps winning and that’s terrific.
“That’s five-in-a-row and at Group Three level and now we have to go up in grade and see if he can cope with that. It will be the Ormonde (at Chester) or the Yorkshire Cup, but he does need soft ground.
“It does not rain at York anymore so that could be a problem, whereas Chester it always rains, so I suppose it will be the Ormonde. He won that last year but he will have a penalty, so we will see.”
Hidden Law displayed the benefit of a promising Southwell debut to bolt up in the 2200m maiden for trainer Charlie Appleby and rider William Buick.
The son of Dubawi shot clear of his rivals at the furlong marker to score by a wide margin from Clockmaker.
