Excellent Guest finally got his head in front in a big
handicap when coming fast and late to land the valuable Betfred Victoria Cup at
Ascot at the weekend, in the process running the perfect trial for the Royal
Hunt Cup, and delighting fans who placed a Royal Ascot bet.
Trained by George Margarson, the six-year-old had fallen to
a mark of 93 after ending last term on a low note in finishing last of the 33
runners in the Cambridgeshire Handicap at Newmarket having run little better on
his previous outing.
Margarson had endured a series of near misses with the
gelded son of Exceed and Excel in top handicaps over the last few seasons and
had begun to wonder if he would ever land a decent prize.
Ridden in the 26-runner Victoria Cup by Tom Queally,
Excellent Guest was held up for much of the straight seven-furlong contest
before making good headway in the final quarter mile. Running on strongly well
inside the final furlong, he burst through to hit the front and then stayed on
well to hold another fast finisher, Bertiwhittle, by half-a-length.
Second in recent seasons in the Bunbury Cup, the Royal Hunt
Cup, and the Buckingham Palace Handicap, Excellent Guest was certainly not
winning out of turn and delighted his handler who is already looking forward to
returning him to the fray at Royal Ascot next month for another crack at the
Royal Hunt Cup over an extra furlong on the straight mile.
The 25/1 chance was landing his fourth win from 26 career
starts and is a half-brother to the yard’s Imperial Guest who suffered a fatal
injury at Kempton in January having proved a standard bearer for Margarson in
recent seasons, including wining a valuable heritage handicap at Glorious
Goodwood.
In Excellent Guest, it appears that the Newmarket handler
has a ready-made replacement for his much missed stalwart, a point that Betfair pundit, Jamie Lynch, has supported in recent days.
No comments:
Post a Comment