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| Staff Writer |
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Unequal Love performed a remarkable feat for the female contenders in the Wokingham Handicap, emerging as the lone filly in the midst of a 25-horse showdown.
Trained by William Haggas, the 4YO triumphed as Haggas's first winner of the week, deftly responding to jockey Tom Marquand's encouragement to stave off Dark Trooper, Orazio, and Lethal Levi.
Ultimately, Unequal Love sealed the victory by a half length, with Dark Trooper finishing a head behind, followed by Orazio and Lethal Levi, with another half length between them.
Notably, Unequal Love, who previously clinched a Listed race at Newmarket, is under the ownership and breeding of the Thompson family's Cheveley Park Stud.
Maureen Haggas, assistant to her husband, said: “Unequal Love is the most gorgeous, lovely, genuine filly – and it’s great to have a winner for Cheveley Park. They are top-class owner-breeders and huge contributors to British racing, so for us to have a winner for them at Royal Ascot is fantastic. They’ve been supporters of ours for donkey’s years. They put a lot into British racing and they really do deserve to be winning races like this.
“Our expectations before the race were very low. She ran really well in a Group race in Ireland and we obviously then went up in the weights, because we didn’t realise she was going to come here – this wasn’t in the plan, and then Mrs Thompson had brought all her family and had the box, and said, would you run her, because they wanted a runner, so William said no problem.
“Then she was drawn one, which looked a terrible draw on what’s gone on this week, so really it just shows how much we know, because we also thought she wanted softer ground and had too much weight, so we are patently clueless!
“I think you can get away with running them on faster ground on a level track - this is a level, climbing track and you can get away with it. She’s just a tough, genuine filly and she really ran well, and she wanted to win, which is what it is all about.”
Marquand said: “To be honest, I never really had a moment of worry. Stall one looked one of the most horrible draws of the lot. I saw that the first eight in the betting were drawn high and you think, well it's not a write-off until it's a write-off but it's as near as.
"I said on the way out, this is one of my favourite fillies in training. She's just gorgeous. She obviously went on a good run last year and won a few. She's just fantastic. She's Cheveley Park's as well, which is great. She's a sweetheart as well as being very talented.”
James Doyle said of Dark Trooper: “Dark Trooper is a dude, and has run a cracker. The action was just away from me a bit – he prefers to follow, follow, follow, and have a crack.
“But the runners dropped away and my targets were no longer targets inside the three, so we had to make a bit of running by ourselves, but I am really proud of him.”
Orazio’s trainer Charlie Hills said: “We were a little bit concerned about the ground coming into the race, and Orazio probably was just a little bit indecisive on the ground to start with. Then once he passed one horse, he flew home.
“He is a pretty decent horse – another few strides, he would have won. I am delighted with him and there are a good few options now going forwards. He is in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket and we will have a look at that. There are some nice handicaps going forwards and it would be nice to hopefully end up in Group company at some stage.”
His rider Saffie Osborne added: “I was sat last and had a lot of traffic issues. It is frustrating as I felt like another couple of strides and I would have been in front, but it’s one of those things in those big field handicaps.”
WINNERS
1st- Unequal Love (Cheveley Park Stud) William Haggas / Tom Marquand
2nd- Dark Trooper (Wathnan Racing) Alban de Mieulle / James Doyle
3rd- Orazio (Susan Roy) Charlie Hills / Saffie Osborne