Unibet Geoffrey Freer Stakes |
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| Group 3, Newbury 14:25 £60,000 added, 3yo plus, 1m 5f 61y, Class 1  |
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| Saturday 17th August 2019 | |
1 Technician 10/1
2
Morando 11/8F
3
Durston 3/1
5 ran Distances: ¾l, 6l, 6l
Time: 2m 55.70s (slow by 10.20s)
TECHNICIAN wins the battle against MORANDO to claim the Group 3 Unibet Geoffrey Freer Stakes
— Champions Series (@ChampionsSeries) August 17, 2019
Assistant trainer Freddie Meade says the St Leger is a strong possibility pic.twitter.com/WnAYEg1JgC
Finding the undulations of Goodwood against him last time out, the Martyn Meade-trained Technician bounced back to form with a hard-fought success in the Group Three prize.
Showing an abundance of stamina, the son of Mastercraftsman appeared to appreciate every yard of the extended one-mile-five-furlong trip, gradually warming to the task before defeating favourite Morando by three-quarters of a length.
Meade’s son and assistant, Freddie, said of the 10-1 scorer: “He has been a funny horse. It’s very difficult, as you only have a short amount of time to work these horses out. He has only had six runs.
“A galloping track and a bit of juice in the ground has helped, and he just keeps on giving. Rob (Hornby) said he felt all the way up the straight he would get there.
“With all credit to him he has managed to win over a mile and a quarter and has run over a mile and a half and stepping up now I think these sort of trips will be his distance.
“We will have to talk to everybody, but that (Leger) has been on our radar for a while and I think the extra trip and the ground the way it could be at Doncaster might make it a logical step.
“He was never able to get into a real good rhythm (at Goodwood) where he could get into a good fight.
“Like he showed at Longchamp, he likes to get his head down and get stuck in and he never had that chance at Goodwood.”
Unibet Geoffrey Freer Stakes
£60,000 added, 3yo plus, 1m 5f 61y, Class 1
5 ran
Going: Soft
1 (2) Technician 3 8-10 Martyn Meade Rob Hornby 10/1
2 (4) ¾ Morando 6 9-8 Andrew Balding Silvestre De Sousa 11/8F
3 (1) 6 Durston 3 8-10 David Simcock Jamie Spencer 3/1
4 (5) 6 Sextant 4 9-5 Sir Michael Stoute Ryan Moore 4/1
5 (3) 33 Sameem 3 8-10 James Tate P J McDonald 13/2
