Double Rush could be set for a tilt at the July Cup after he added to his early-season victories at Newmarket to bring up a hat-trick in the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Switched to Andrew Balding at the beginning of the current campaign with the intention of being the ill-fated Gewan’s lead horse, the four-year-old has thrived for the Kingsclere team, winning at both the Craven and Guineas meetings on the Rowley Mile.
Sent off at 5-1 in the hands of Shane Foley, he added a third win of the season and achieved what William Haggas’ More Thunder narrowly failed to do last season, beaten a head in this race having won the same Newmarket races.
It was a third win of the week for Balding, who said: “Charlie (Hills, former trainer) really rated him and he said that to me when he came to us, he thought he was really good and he’s right, he’s a very good horse. He’s a top man, isn’t he?
“It happens, I feel sorry for him but his loss is very much our gain. Shane gave him a peach of a ride and I’d like to think there’s more to come, he’s an exciting horse.
“He’s got the class to travel, it’s not easy to win these big handicaps with high weights but he’s done it really well.
“He’s a high-class horse who deserves to move out of handicaps now, and I’m thrilled.
“Royal Ascot is important, whatever race you run in, and we just felt that if he wasn’t going to win the Wokingham, he wasn’t going to win a Group One. We know he likes Newmarket, so there’s every chance he’ll go to the July Cup.”
Harry Charlton’s Completely Random was a head behind in second, with James Owen’s pair of Soldier’s Tree and Far Above Dream third and fourth respectively.
More to follow...