Noble Dynasty continues on upward curve at Newmarket

Noble Dynasty headlined a Newmarket double for Charlie Appleby and William Buick as he landed the Plantation Stud Criterion Stakes.

A handicap winner on the Rowley Mile course last month, when beating subsequent Royal Ascot scorer English Oak, Noble Dynasty made a seamless switch back to Group Three company as he proved a shade too good for Nostrum.

Dear My Friend and Pogo were both keen to get on with things, but Buick bided his time before giving the signal a furlong from home.

Noble Dynasty picked up in style and found plenty for pressure from Nostrum, winning by three-quarters of a length.

The 2-1 favourite was a second victorious market leader for the Godolphin team after King Of Conquest (11-8) had obliged in the JCB Fred Archer Stakes.

Appleby told www.godolphin.com: “Noble Dynasty has been a consistent horse this year and we are delighted to see him win a Group Three race. He is similar to King Of Conquest in that they are both lead horses at home in the mornings but can do a good job in the afternoons as well.

“We will potentially look at the Group Two Lennox Stakes at Goodwood and he deserves a crack at a race like that. He showed his versatility on the quicker ground today, which has always been a slight concern. William said he let himself down on it, so it opens up a few more options.”

King Of Conquest was made to work hard for his Listed success, digging deep for Buick to repel the challenge of Aimeric by a neck, with the pair nearly five lengths clear of third-placed Deauville Legend.

Appleby added: “King Of Conquest is an honest horse who needs a gallop. He ran in the Jockey Club Stakes at the Guineas meeting and it became a tactical affair, which doesn’t work for him.

“I think we will keep him in the UK. We have spoken before about taking him abroad, but he doesn’t have that tactical pace. You need to travel on sharper tracks and he’s always behind the bridle, but he enjoys racing that way.

“We will probably give him a little break and think about whether to possibly step him up to a mile and six furlongs. All the evidence suggests that he will appreciate the extra distance.”

Celandine (9-1) kept on all the way to the line to claim the Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Fillies’ Stakes.

Trained by Ed Walker and ridden by Tom Marquand, the Windsor winner was to the fore from the off, but had to tough it out in the closing stages of the six-furlong heat as the challengers stacked up behind her.

However, she had enough in hand to fend off Tales Of The Heart, with 11-4 favourite Arabian Dusk back in third.

Walker told Racing TV: “Really happy – she’s quick. Annoyingly, I said to Tom ‘where do we go from here’ and he said the Lowther (Stakes at York), and I said ‘that closed this week and I didn’t put her in’.

“I put her in the Moyglare though, thinking she would end up going further, but Tom is adamant she has loads of speed and if we change from six, come back to five, rather than going up to seven.

“She’s exciting and very well bred, great to get a stakes winner for Rockcliffe Stud and she’s an exciting filly.”