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Doyle at the double as Cachet grabs 1000 Guineas glory

By Racing TV

Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023

Watch how the George Boughey-trained Cachet made all to complete a wonderful weekend for James Doyle.

Cachet made all in the Qipco 1000 Guineas at Newmarket to give trainer George Boughey his first Classic success.

Remarkably, it was a second Classic of the weekend for rider James Doyle – just 24 hours on from his maiden one aboard Coroebus in the 2000 Guineas.

Winner of the Nell Gwyn at the Craven meeting, the Highclere-owned daughter of Aclaim was sent off a 16-1 but led from the stalls opening and was never passed, despite the strong late challenge provided by the Ralph Beckett-trained Prosperous Voyage.

Try as she might, the latter could not get there, as Cachet answered every call to prevail by a neck, with Tuesday another length and three-quarters back in third for Aidan O’Brien and Frankie Dettori.

Doyle reflects on a dream weekend

Doyle said: “I promise I won’t get emotional today! It’s incredible isn’t it? I rode her a couple of times last year and she was Group One placed in the Fillies’ Mile.

“George (Boughey) and I were talking about it beforehand, she seems to be much stronger this year although that last half a furlong took forever! I was praying for the line but she’s all guts and she loves this track. She really puts the race to bed between the three and the two (furlong poles) and we were clinging on late on.

“A special thank you to George – obviously he has a young, growing team but he’s doing amazing things and I think he’s a name we’ll be hearing a lot about in the future.”

Doyle went on to add: “I am not quite as emotional as yesterday but I really just got the chance to enjoy today. We knew she kind of wears her heart of her sleeve and knows this track inside out, so I felt as long as we could get those cheap sectionals midway – which it felt like we’d got – I could be brave and let her use her stride into the dip. She goes through it so well that it’s almost like she eyes it up from a way out and she really let rip through it, so it was just a case of hoping she’d hang on to the line. As we know the mile was a little bit too far for her last year but George certainly thought that she’d developed enough through the winter that she’d hit the line much better than she did as a two year old and it came just in time.

“Obviously I lost the ride on her, I rode her a couple of times in the back end of last year and she went to America and quite understandably the owners wanted to use an American jockey and it was great to see her run a great race. I was looking forward to riding her in her trial and obviously it didn’t work out but it’s the way things go and I’ve been lucky enough to jump back on her today and it’s just amazing really.

“It’s incredible and I have to say yesterday was just incredible, I’ve ridden some big winners around the world but I’ve never felt a feeling like that. The closest to the atmosphere that I’d felt before that was probably Big Orange’s victory in the Gold Cup (at Royal Ascot) which was an incredible day, but it was very close to that if not a touch better.

“It just feels like a complete blur and whirlwind at the minute. Obviously I knew what she could do but it was just how she would see out the mile as a three year old, George has trained her to absolute perfection and she’s hit the line when she needed to. I was thinking that something was going to pick me up any second (coming out of the dip) and my dreams would be over but thankfully she’s so tough and she was well seasoned as a two year old, which I think stood her in really good stead. She knows this track really well and has run here plenty of times as well.

“It’s very funny how things work out, this game is a hard one in that sometimes it can be so ruthless and it can be tough on you and other times when the cards fall in the right direction they fall in your favour as we’ve seen today. I’ve been lucky enough to pick the ride back up on this filly so it’s been amazing.

“I started off as amateur when I was 16 and still in school, I remember doing one of my French GCSE exams and I had to run around the corner to the racetrack afterwards! It’s amazing how hard the Classics are to get, so for two to come along like they have and so smoothly as well, I couldn’t have wished for things to have gone as well as they did. I was thinking that perhaps Silvestre on Flash Betty in stall one would be leading us and when we popped out he wasn’t there and I was quite happy to do our own thing and nobody really tackled me through the mid part of the race – so it just worked out absolutely beautifully really.

“To have these big crowds back and to feel the racing atmosphere like it once was is just incredible and it’s something that my mother has always said to me. I remember winning on Cityscape she didn’t feel that I quite took in everything and that’s why yesterday I just took myself off on my own on Coroebus when I pulled up just to have a moment to really reflect on it. That was probably why I got quite emotional actually.

“It would be great to do the quintuple but you can’t be too greedy can you. We’ll take this on board and whatever will be will be.”

A jubilant Boughey, 30, said: "It was a long final furlong, but it was a peach of a ride from James. She eyed up every blade of grass, she loves it here.

"They were closing late, but there were some very good fillies in behind her. Ralph Beckett's filly stood out for me and she's obviously very good, but I'm delighted she held on.

"I couldn't have imagined I'd be winning a Classic so soon in my career. To get a filly like her is a privilege.

"It's great to have Highclere on board, they have six with me now and it's massive to pay them back, it's very special.

"It was just a question of whether she stayed or not. I hoped she'd stay and she's very tough. There's not much of her, but she's very tough and she's very straightforward. She's been a model of consistency all the way through and has gone from strength to strength."

A delighted Boughey savours the biggest moment of his career

Looking to what is next for his stable star, Boughey said: "I think she'll probably go to (Royal) Ascot (Coronation Stakes).

"There's the Irish Guineas and the French, but I think she'll just go straight to Ascot.

"I'd love to end up at the Breeders' Cup again. It's a long year and she's already won the Nell Gwyn and the Guineas - the Breeders' Cup isn't until November so we'll have to think about how she gets there.

"She's a Group One winner over a mile now so she can go anywhere in the world. The fact that she likes fast ground makes her a global filly and that is huge for us and very exciting.

"It sounds bizarre coming out of my mouth to be talking about these races and it is amazing to find one quite so early (in career).

"I dreamed of having a winner at Bath two years ago, never mind winning the Guineas! It's all come very quick, I've built up an amazing team around me, too many to name, but the operation is growing all the time and that makes my job easier. I sleep a lot better now.

"She's always been very impressive at home and the sky is the limit now. It looked an open race, there were Group One winners in there but she did it well.

"The key was to just let her use her stride, but it became a test of stamina. Some very good fillies were paddling three out. It didn't surprise me as she'd been training brilliantly and it reminded me of Galileo Gold (2000 Guineas winner when Boughey was assistant to Hugo Palmer), I said to James to just go forward and get in a rhythm and let her enjoy it."

Boughey celebrates Classic glory (Focusonracing.com)

Highclere's Harry Herbert said: "We'd won a Irish Classic with Petrushka and obviously the Royal Ascot Racing Club won the Derby with Motivator but to win the 1000 Guineas in the blue silks is very special. She did it the hard way, she's so tough and honest.

"Jake Warren bought her for 60,000 a year ago at the breeze-ups and she's won a Classic a year later, it's amazing.

"This is a lovely group of owners and I have a fantastic team who work for me, they work so hard, so to win a Classic for a group of 20 owners is a dream come true. This shows that it can be done by syndicates.

"This is a lifetime's ambition for me. We've had other Group One winners, but to win a Classic at HQ in the blue silks is incredible.

The sectionals

"George is such an impressive young man, he stood out at Hugo Palmer's but we couldn't really send him horses in his first year as it would have been hard to persuade the owners. We sent them in his second year though and he had 87 winners!

"He's a terrific talent and a very special person, too."

Doyle said: "I promised I wouldn’t get emotional today but that was incredible, wasn’t it?

"I know this filly from last year, I got to sit on her a couple of times. She was placed in the Fillies' Mile and George just felt she'd see the mile out a bit stronger as she's developed physically over the winter.

"That last half a furlong took forever and I was praying for the line, but she’s all guts, she loves this track.

"All credit to George Boughey and his team and it's great for Highclere to have another high-class filly."

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