The opening contest of the Boodles July Festival went the way of Castle Way as Charlie Appleby’s progressive three-year-old battled to Bahrain Trophy Stakes success.
Charlie Appleby has been enjoying a fine spell on the July Course of late and Castle Way ensured the golden patch continued with a hard-fought victory in Newmarket's opener.
Castle Way had been progressive prior to his first outing on the July Course this afternoon winning twice as a two-year-old before making a successful reappearance in the Listed Newmarket Stakes on the Rowley Mile.
The step up in trip seemingly brought about plenty of improvement from this son of Almanzor, who was always positioned towards the fore. Think First took the field along at a moderate tempo, but James Tate's colt soon began to feel the pinch as the pace quickened and the challengers loomed. Saint George was off the bridle some way from home but laid down his bid for success towards the far side while Ryan Moore, who had to wait for room onboard the well-supported 4/6 favourite Tower Of London, made his challenge towards the near rail. However, it was Castle Way and William Buick who saw out the 1m5f trip the best as he stuck his neck out gamely to score by a head and land the spoils at 9/2. Saint George finished a further neck behind in third.
Charlie Appleby, who landed the contest with Grade 1 winner Yibir back in 2021, told ITV Racing: "we always had a lot of confidence in him.
"The plan was always to go out ride him positively - we just thought he'll stay, or he won't stay. And you can see he did. He's got a good head-carriage and he tries.
He added: "I'm delighted. He's a horse who's done little wrong in his career really, his only real blip was at Epsom on soft ground. We were confident at home that the step up in trip would suit him - he was last seen on the Rowley Mile over a mile and a quarter so there was a question mark there as there always is.
"It was a great ride by William, he went out to ride him as though the trip wasn't a problem and William said for a race over that kind of trip that they went very steady, and it did turn into a bit of a sprint. At one stage I thought we could nick it but he'd have to find again and to his credit he dug deep.
"I think we'll probably go down the natural route [for the St Leger]. We'll look towards the Great Voltigeur (at York) and then that will hopefully be a springboard for him to be a St Leger contender.
"We haven't had a run since May, I dodged Ascot because I couldn't see us beating King Of Steel, so then the next target really would be either here or to keep an eye on the Grand Prix de Paris. We'd then have had to ship there, and he hasn't done that before, so I thought we'd test our stamina here before we go travelling.
"I think other people can answer for me [whether his three-year-olds are as strong as other years], but that's just the way it is. In the spring we had people thinking that we weren't firing on all cylinders, I was confident that what we were doing at home was right and all the horses were fit and well. We didn't have that Guineas kind of horse like we've had in the years before and they've been more slow burners.
"You'd love to have that year in and year out but I'm sure people would find that quite boring! We didn't have the winner of the Futurity or the Fillies' Mile last year, so the clues were there."
Kevin Buckley, Coolmore's UK representative, said of the runner-up Tower Of London: "He is clearly an improving horse, and he has run a nice race there. That performance shouldn't deter from the future plans we have for him. He is a full-brother to Capri, who was an improving horse. He is a nice-looking horse and Galileo's have a special will to win. Hopefully, there will be big days for him in the future."
Paddy Power cut the winner to 7/1 from 20/1 for the St Leger at Doncaster while runner-up Tower Of London remains a general 5/1 chance.
