Almeraq powers to hugely impressive victory at Ayr
The Shadwell-owned Dark Angel colt was making his handicap debut off a mark of 90 as the 2-1 favourite in Scotland and looked at ease as he stalked the early leaders in the six-furlong race.
He made headway at the halfway stage and moved in front at the two-furlong marker before kicking into top gear to breeze clear of his 17 rivals. Almeraq, who has an entry for the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock in September, powered to the line to complete a five-length success in the hands of Clifford Lee and enhance his growing reputation.
The four-year-old was slashed in price to 3-1 favourite with the sponsors for the Coral Stewards' Cup at Glorious Goodwood, although Shadwell racing manager Angus Gold sounded a warning note over Almeraq lining in the big handicap on Saturday week.
'I was impressed with his performance and it's good to see him come back to what we'd thought he might show,' Gold said.
'We always hoped last year that he would be a nice horse and he just had a few little niggles in the spring, which held William up when they wanted to get going with him.
'The only thing I would caution – I haven't spoken to William, all options are open – but we've taken a long time and been very patient with him.
'Hopefully his future is all in front of him and hopefully in the autumn we will get some decent ground, so I'm not saying he won't run at Goodwood, but I'd be surprised if he bounced straight back in after being so patient with him.
'It's only 12 days away so let's see. We'll see what the weather does and see how he comes out of this.'
There was a shock in the opening racingtv.com/freetrial EBF Maiden Stakes as Chesham Stakes runner-up Thesecretadversary was beaten by debutant Rochfortbridge (28-1). Fozzy Stack's colt went off as the 2-13 favourite, but he came out of the stalls slowly and was in the rear for much of the seven-furlong contest.
While Thesecretadversary came to the outside with two furlongs to go, Adrian Keatley's charge proved too much as the 100,000 guineas buy claimed victory by three-quarters of a length, to leave his trainer eyeing up a tilt at the Acomb Stakes at York.
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