Phil Cunningham hails Richard Spencer after memorable Ayr double

Owner Phil Cunningham praised the skills of his trainer Richard Spencer after the pair masterminded a Cup double at Ayr.

Cunningham, who won the 2000 Guineas back in 2007 with Cockney Rebel, owns both Silver Cup scorer Candy and Gold Cup hero Run Boy Run.

Those victories supplemented the achievements of the team’s Two Tribes, who pulled off an audacious midsummer double within the space of a week in the International at Ascot and the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, meaning Spencer has won four of the most competitive handicaps of the season.

“I’m back at work today and it’s just about starting to sink in,” said Cunningham. “I was watching it all on TV last night and I can’t wait to go home and do the same again tonight!

“When Candy won the Silver you start to think you’ve had your luck and of our six runners in the two races, I did think Candy had the best chance as he loves softer ground. My only concern was the draw. When you see how the Gold Cup panned out he had the worst of it but on his side he absolutely bolted up.

“I actually visualised myself on the podium at Ayr and when I went up to collect the Gold Cup and I was messing about with the trophy, I actually saw myself doing that a week ago in like a déjà vu moment, as crazy as that sounds.

“Run Boy Run has been on the go all the way back from Finals Day on the all-weather – at Royal Ascot, in the Bunbury Cup, was fourth in the Stewards’ Cup – he’s barely run a bad race and he was even fourth last week in the Portland.”

He went on: “Richard obviously aimed them at these races but it’s still some training performance. Myself and Richard are so close but I don’t think I’ve given him the credit he deserves, it’s a tremendous feat, absolutely amazing. It’s not just Ayr, what he did with Two Tribes as well.

“He’s probably the hardest working person I’ve ever met. We’ve had to change things and take things away otherwise he’d still be doing them, like training jumpers. We didn’t have many but he absolutely loved Wonderwall who went and won the Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham.

“I promised him it was the best thing to do and said to him ‘do you want to win a £20,000 race at Cheltenham or big races on the Flat’ and it’s now looking like we made the right decisions.

“We hit a bit of a flat spot after Cockney Rebel but with Rajasinghe (Coventry Stakes winner who sired both Run Boy Run and Two Tribes) starting to take off, hopefully it’s the start of something. We’ve no interest in 100 winners at class six level, we’re in it to win races like this.”