Zanthos back in business with all-the-way Rockfel win

Zanthos roared back to winning ways with victory in the BoyleSports-sponsored Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket.

Trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, the €1million breeze-up buy had created a taking impression on the July course on debut but then had no answer to Touleen when they clashed at Leicester earlier this month.

Although connections were not deterred ahead of the rematch with Owen Burrows’ 11-10 favourite, Zanthos was a drifter before the off and having been second-favourite on the morning of the race, walked out to 15-2 by the time Oisin Murphy exited stall 10 and made his enterprising move down the stands rail.

Allowed to bowl along in splendid isolation, the daughter of Sioux Nation cut a fine sight as she blitzed down the Rowley Mile and although William Buick on the slowly-away Touleen tracked across in a bid to keep tabs on the runaway leader, it was ultimately The Prettiest Star who gave Zanthos backers most cause for concern in the closing stages.

Ed Walker’s 12-1 chance got within half a length, with Sir Mark Prescott’s Moon Target also running on for third, but they were no match for Zanthos who was cut to 16-1 for next year’s 1000 Guineas by Paddy Power. Touleen was only fifth on this occasion.

Ed Crisford said: “We just said to Oisin to keep her happy and let her use her stride. I thought she was maybe doing a bit too much in the early part, but she was travelling so well.

“I was a bit nervous the last half-furlong but she stuck on well and she’s a classy filly.”

Reflecting on her Leicester defeat, the trainer added: “We didn’t realise the pace was going to be that slow and we’d tried to do something different. It turned into a two-furlong sprint. Whether that suited Touleen that day I’m not sure, but we put our filly behind and she was doing too much.

“Oisin told us to put a line through the race and to move on, so we were confident we were going to run well today but maybe not beat the Leicester winner.

“She’s obviously a very talented filly with a lot of ability and hopefully she can turn into a proper filly.”

Crisford all but ruled out a return to Newmarket for next month’s Fillies’ Mile and while he did not entirely rule out a possible trip to the Breeders’ Cup, it appears more likely Zanthos will not test her stamina over a mile until next year.

“We always felt she’d definitely stay a mile, but today it looked like she was tying up coming up the hill,” he said.

“The sensible thing is probably to put her away and bring her back for a Fred Darling or a Nell Gwyn in the spring and see where we go from there.

“We always felt she would stay a mile, the riders at home felt she would stay a mile and Oisin feels she could stay a mile.

“She’s a good quality filly and an exciting filly for next year.”

Walker said of the runner-up: “It was a huge performance on the back of one run. You think they’re good, but you never quite know until they come into a race of this nature and she’s shown she’s pretty good.

“We’re very lucky we’ve got a nice bunch of two-year-old fillies and she’d be right up there. She’s a big girl who will do very well from two to three.

“We’ve been slightly bumbling along hoping there might be some decent ground and it came good.

“She got plenty wrong today. Kieran (Shoemark) said she could certainly learn to relax better and I think there’s stacks of improvement, which is really exciting.

“She’s done now for the year and we can start her next season in a Fred Darling or a Nell Gwyn.”

Prescott said of a much brighter effort from Moon Target than at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting: “That was a better effort and I don’t know what happened at Doncaster really, it was just one of those things.

“Today she ran as though she’ll be better over a mile and at Doncaster it didn’t look as if she wanted a mile at all. I’m not quite sure what’s happened in 15 days, but she’s within shouting distance of the good ones and we’ll see what happens.”

He added: “She had disappointed at Doncaster and we tried all sorts of different things – the back man came to see her, we put cheekpieces on her and rode her a bit differently.

“It’s no good standing around doing the same thing when you’ve had a disaster, so I suppose it all adds up.

“I would imagine that would be it for this year as I think she wants fast ground. If she ran again it would only be here (in the Fillies’ Mile).”