Coltrane takes top honours at Sagaro again

Coltrane fought bravely at Ascot to successfully defend his Longines Sagaro Stakes title and get his head in front of Caius Chorister.

In the 2023 edition, the gelding trained by Andrew Balding triumphed by a margin of four and three-quarter lengths, but it had to work hard to defeat Sweet William and then Caius Chorister.

With two furlongs remaining, the seven-year-old overtook Quickthorn, having initially trailed him. He was in a tight race with Sweet William.

When Oisin Murphy and Sweet William battled for the lead, he made sure to put Coltrane's nose in front.

As Sweet William's challenge diminished in the last furlong, Coltrane (7-2) showed a lot of heart, but Caius Chorister was gaining home on the outside.

After a head-on collision with Trueshan early in the race, it appeared as though the David Menuisier mare would win by a head, but Coltrane persevered heroically to win by a head.

Balding thinks his charge, who placed second in the race last year, deserves another chance at the Gold Cup next month.

“I think there was a concern whether the fire was still there, but I think it certainly was,” he said. “I think he was in front longer than Oisin probably wanted to be but he was really brave there at the end. He’s a fighter and a star really. We train horses so we can come across one like him and he keeps producing. Maybe the cheekpieces sparked him up today, but he really looked well and maybe he just wasn’t himself in Meydan. He’s just come to himself now and he’s a fighter. He loves Ascot and has run one bad race here and that’s it. We’ll look forward to coming back here in June. He does his own thing at home, which is not very much in the mornings. We’ll let him do his own thing and he will train himself for the Gold Cup. We did the same last year and he ran a stellar race, so we will try to do the same thing.”