William Haggas was left struggling to remember such a glut of winners after Dubai Honour in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano and Cloudy Dawn in the Group 3 Prix de Lieurey completed an across the Channel four-timer in the space of 40 frantic minutes on Saturday.
With Sacred striking in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes at Newbury and Motawaajed also scoring at Doncaster, Haggas followers could have backed all four at accumulated odds of 4,252-1.
The trainer said: “That was very nice. I can’t remember when but it’s always very pleasant when it happens, I’m delighted.”
Dubai Honour and Maxime Guyon got the better of Pretty Tiger and the tenacious Tasman Bay to land the Guillaume d’Ornano, the richest Group 2 in Europe with a first prize of £203,571.
“He’s a good horse and he won the Britannia Stakes on his side of the track and finished fourth,” said Haggas. ”Then he went to Newmarket and beat a good horse of Andrew Balding’s [Foxes Tales], who then went out and won a Group 3 last weekend. I think this is a nice horse who doesn’t need too much racing.
William Haggas’ fabulous four-timer
2.50pm Cloudy Dawn, Group 3 Prix de Lieurey, Deauville (104-10)
3.00 Motawaajed, Cazoo Handicap, Doncaster (100-30)
3.25 Dubai Honour, Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano, Deauville, (113-10)
3.30 Sacred, Group 2 Hungerford Stakes, Newbury, (6-1)
“I lost him in the winter and he went off to Laura Collett, the three-day-event rider. She did a brilliant job and really turned him round. When he came back he was in a really good place and has done nothing but thrive.”
Runner-up Tasman Bay attempted to make all and Sir Mark Todd was thrilled with the way he stuck to the task.
“Ideally he probably needs a mile and a half and maybe even further in time but this is a nice race and we were chasing the French premiums as he’s French-bred,” said Todd. “Hopefully he’ll come back in a month’s time for the Prix Niel and that will probably do him for this year. He’s a big horse and he’ll be better next season.”
Haggas began his amazing run when Cloudy Dawn ran down the Ivan Furtado-trained Just Beautiful under Vincent Cheminaud.
“I’d like to say I’d take all the credit but it was [owner-breeder] James Wigan who wanted to go for this,” Haggas added. “I wanted to take her for the Listed race at Haydock last weekend and he said no let’s go for the Group race so fair play to him.
“She stayed the trip really well which, in the spring I would never have believed she could do. And she didn’t flinch at all, she was in a good position and she kept running on.”
Read more:
Haggas lands Group-race treble as Sacred bounces back to win at Newbury
‘He was up for it today’ – Hukum sets up international campaign with Newbury win
‘She’s thriving so why not’ – Alcohol Free to run in Juddmonte International
