Double Rush Heads One-two For Charlie Hills At HQ
Double Rush led home one-two for fitness instructor Charlie Hills in the curtain-raising bet365 Handicap on Craven Stakes day at Newmarket.
A winner on the all-weather at Wolverhampton little over a fortnight earlier, Double Rush was a 9-4 favourite to act on his handicap launching in the hands of Jason Watson and got the better of stablemate by a length and a quarter.
Hills stated of the winner: "He won his beginner really well in a great time at Wolverhampton and I think he's going to be a nice, enhancing three-year-old through the season.
"Some of our horses weren't best last season, so he had a good mark really. He most likely didn't handle the track that well today and a flatter track will fit him better.
"There's a valuable handicap at York a week or so before Royal Ascot and we might aim him for that, but we'll see how he improves and take it step by step."
John and Thady Gosden rapidly followed up their win in the function Craven Stakes by saddling Swiss Lightning (2-1 favourite) to take the Rossdales Maiden Fillies' Stakes in determined fashion.
Double Rush winning the opening race at Newmarket on Wednesday (Mike Egerton/PA)
Making simply her second start, the Lordship Stud stud-owned daughter of Night Of Thunder revealed an incredible mindset to come out on top in an awesome three-way surface.
"We gave her an experience of the racecourse at the end of last year, however it was heavy ground and she didn't like it, she was a bit weak and the jockey took care of her and she has actually succeeded today as it wasn't the plan and there was no rate, it was an untidy race - she looked a bit chewy at an early stage however settled into it.
"That was over seven and it extremely much seemed like we ought to remain at 7 and do not go back to six and not go up to a mile, so we'll have a good appearance. I wouldn't wish to hurry her back from that as she's had a hard sufficient race, however you have actually got to enjoy with her.
"She showed a fantastic mindset since she struck the front, then wasn't sure what she was meant to be doing, but she didn't offer up. Ryan (Moore, on Richard Hannon's runner-up Stellenbosch) had the rail which's a big advantage with these unskilled fillies."
Stallion Ten Sovereigns had the one-two in the concluding Watch Live Racing At bet365 Handicap as Harry Charlton's Ten Pounds (5-1) saw off Tom Clover's 5-4 preferred Fifty Nifty in the hands of Trevor Whelan.