Running Lion could be bound for Paris rather than Epsom

John Gosden was hesitant to commit to a tilt at the Betfred Oaks with Running Lion following her dominant success in the Howden Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

The three-year-old was sent off at 100-30 for the Listed contest following a hat-trick of all-weather wins and was always travelling strongly in the hands of Oisin Murphy.

Once given her head, Running Lion soon put clear daylight between herself and her rivals and passed the post with four and a half lengths in hand over the runner-up Sumo Sam.

Betfred immediately slashed the winner to 7-1 for 20-1 for Epsom – but having seen her sire Roaring Lion come up short in the stamina department when third in the 2018 Derby, Gosden raised the French equivalent, the Prix de Diane, as a possible alternative.

John Gosden, who trains the winner along with his son Thady, said: “We are delighted with her. We brought her down here and did a piece of work. Oisin said go for the Pretty Polly as she will need the mile and a quarter and don’t go for the Guineas so he has made the right decision.

“David Howden [the owner] has been amazing. He has sponsored the race here when the sponsor fell out and no one deserves a winner more than him. He (Roaring Lion) was a wonderful horse. He won the Dante in tremendous style and we went to the Derby. He was the last one off the bridle but he didn’t see the mile and a half out.

"It will be very interesting with this filly if she is more Prix de Diane (French Oaks) or if she is an Oaks mile and a half filly. We will have to give that a bit of thought. It is lovely to have a filly like this. It is testing ground out there and they have got to be able to handle it. Full marks for her doing it so well.

"The jockey’s first reaction was to possibly stay at a mile and a quarter. I’m always interested to what they say when they comeback sraight away and when they have not had time to think a lot about it. Anything is possible.

“She did it well. This is a good trial result but you have more trials to come, there is the Musidora and the Newbury trial and I thought it was a lovely filly of Sir Michael Stoute’s that won here on Friday (Infinite Cosmos) and she looked very classy so we will see how it shapes up. I think she handled the ground and she has got class. I walked it at 7am this morning and it is that holding drying ground and it is pretty tough work for them.

“We will give it a lot of thought but the idea would be to go to probably one of the Oaks, which won I don’t know. We won the Diane last year (with Nashwa) and it is a wonderful race. I knew we had a nice filly but anyone running today had to handle that ground and she showed a lot of class.”

Howden added: “I’ve got about 20 horses in training but I bred this one as well which is really nice. It was amazing and it is so wonderful to see Running Lion win as she is such a special horse being by Roaring Lion who holds a special place in mine and David Redvers heart.

“To see her do that in a race, which is an important race as I won it a few years back with Run Wild, so it is a dream come true. To see Oisin do that today is as good as it gets. At the start she was just changing her lead and she didn’t like the sticky ground but then you suddenly see Oisin move her and she just cruised through and left them standing. I’m on a pretty big high at the moment.”

Oliver Cole, joint-trainer of second-placed Sumo Sam (15-2), said: "Sumo Sam ran great but she may be better over a longer trip. She's not in the Oaks so we may look at something else."

Kevin Stott, rider of runner-up Sumo Sam, added: “She’s run really well on what was only her second start. She was still a little green and will get further. She didn’t mind the ground at all and she looks a nice filly.”

Ralph Beckett, trainer of the third Trust The Stars (100-30), said: “She ran great. We’ll find another stakes race for her now.”

HMS President (7-1) got up close home in the £100,000 Howden Heritage Handicap over 1m 6f to take the honours by a neck.

Robin Smith, assistant to winning trainer Alan King, said: “I thought he got a bump early on and that lit him up and then Rossa (Ryan) has done a good job of managing him from then on. I thought as long as the horse on his outside at four from home didn’t head him (Adjuvant), as long as he could keep him behind him, he was just helping us along a bit.

“He probably suits a bigger field as they do go a gallop and they come back to them if they go hard in front like they did today. He’s a very talented horse and he’s settled into the routine at Barbury Castle well, so we’re very pleased to have him.

“To be honest the plan has been for quite some time to come for this today. We’ll re-evaluate now and see.

“Henry (Ponsonby, the late syndicate manager in whose colours HMS President runs) liked having winners anywhere bless him and it was always a pleasure when you knew he was going racing, he made it very fun and enjoyable for everyone. It’s great that we can carry on the syndicate in his absence and I’m sure he’d have been absolutely thrilled if he was here.”

Shaun Lycett, trainer of long-time leader Torcello (14-1) who dead-heated for second with Adjuvant (15-2), said: “If we had that shower we were forecast then they would have struggled to catch him but it has just dried back a bit and it is a bit tacky. I thought he was going to hang on but I’m happy with the run though and I’m not complaining.

“I think he would have got a bigger cheer than the horse that won the race if had won as he is a bit of a star around here. If we would have had that shower it would have been that bit looser which he prefers. If it was yesterday’s ground they wouldn’t have caught him as he goes through that like a tractor.

“He didn’t run well at Doncaster as it was horrible tacky ground that day and he didn’t like it at all. He always runs well here as he likes these straight tracks. Sharp tracks like Goodwood he can’t get into a rhythm but around here he can. It will all be ground dependent where we go with him but I wish I could have 10 like him.”