Billy Loughnane, 20, has surged into the lead in the Flat jockeys' championship after winning the July Cup at Newmarket on Saturday. Riding Donnacha O'Brien's Comanche Brave, he secured his third Group One success of the year by beating Venetian Sun by a length in the midsummer sprint championship.
Race tactics and victory
Comanche Brave tracked Japan's Satono Reve, who set a strong pace, before producing a powerful finishing kick to hold off Venetian Sun in the final furlong. Loughnane said: "The race today couldn't have gone any better. I got on the back of the Japanese horse, who was a perfect target, and my one instruction was just to nurse him as long as I could." He added: "He travelled so sweetly, fast ground was perfect and I do think he could drop back in trip. I was taking back the whole way through and he's got a lot of gears, this horse. Hopefully the sky's the limit."
Future plans for Comanche Brave
O'Brien described his sprinter as "super-impressive" and noted the horse holds several Group One entries in the coming weeks. "There's not much between these sprinters and he'd won a Group Two, so where else to go but keep trying to win Group Ones?" O'Brien said. "We've seen a few times horses that have been beaten in the Jubilee at Royal Ascot and have come and won this race, so we weren't afraid to try it and it worked."
Other results on Super Saturday
Earlier on the Newmarket card, Charlie Appleby's Al Hudaiba beat hot favourite Abraham Lincoln by a nose in the Group Two Superlative Stakes, despite drifting sharply in the final furlong. Appleby said: "William [Buick] said it's just a job to stay on, let alone to try and get him to gallop out. I was sort of confident once he got his head down and started to rally again that he would get there, because he has got a lot of ability, this horse. But if he's going to start stepping up into bigger leagues, he's going to have to concentrate a bit harder."
Elsewhere, Raammee won the historic John Smith's Cup handicap at York, while the progressive Zeus Olympios took the Summer Mile at Ascot. Aalto also ran out winner of the Bunbury Cup handicap for the second time in three years.
