The Wizard Of Eye was the star of the show at Ascot as an expert ride from Tom Marquand saw him win the Victoria Cup. Also on the card, Xanthe underlined her Queen Mary credentials and Kotari completed a quick-fire hat-trick…
The Wizard Of Eye stormed home to snatch a thrilling Lavazza & Ascot 10 Year Anniversary Victoria Cup victory right on the line.
Joe Leavy looked to have made a decisive move on Richard Fahey’s Ramazan between the final two furlongs and he kept on well to fend off the challenge of outsider Bless Him.
But Tom Marquand conjured up an incredible late surge from The Wizard Of Eye and the Charlie Fellowes-trained five-year-old timed it to perfection, scoring by a head and a short head at 7/1.
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It was a first triumph since November 2022 for the now-gelded son of Galileo Gold, who was once 11th in the 2000 Guineas in his time with Stan Moore.
Marquand told Sky Sports: “A big shout-out to Charlie, he’s got him dead right. I’ve got to say I probably sat on him for half a furlong longer than I thought was right, but I had Charlie’s words ringing in my ears.
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“He’s a very useful horse, he’s shown that before, but to get him back in this order, he’s done a very good job.
“As soon as we’d gone 100 yards, the pace came into the race and I was super happy with him, I was taken into the race and he’s picked up great.
“I’d say things could go even more in his favour on a track like this than they have today, so it’s exciting for Charlie to have a horse like this in his stable and nice to get him back to the horse of old.”
What about the rest of the card?
Hallasan proved a disappointment for odds-on favourite-backers when only third in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Novice Stakes, with 8/1 chance Xanthe edging out 14/1 Reposado by a head for top honours.
Richard Hannon’s Earthlight filly was upholding family honour as a half-sister to three winners, including Listed-class scorer Fort Del Oro.
Owner Julie Wood said: “She’s super, she’s just like her dam Gilded, who won the Queen Mary. She’s the same make and model and today she performed just like her; head down and very gutsy.
“We turned to Richard straight away and said it’s the Queen Mary next – it’s an obvious one, as she looks just an out-and-out five-furlongs sprinter at the moment.”
Kotari completed a quick hat-trick when claiming victory in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% Handicap as the 16-5 favourite.
The gelding gave Gary and Josh Moore their first success as joint-licence holders at Salisbury just six days ago and coped with a 5lb penalty to score under Jason Watson.
The winning jockey said: “I expected there to be a lot more pace on in the race and they weren’t going the kind of gallop I would have liked, but he’s obviously improving quite rapidly.”
Sean D Bowen produced Bellarchi (8/1) with a well-timed run to land the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% British EBF Fillies’ Handicap by threequarters of a length from Rose Prick.
Grant Tuer’s filly was continuing her good run of form, having last month obliged at Southwell before going down by just a nose when second at Beverley.
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