Racing News round-up: Oasis Dream left some fast horses trailing in his wake as he landed an effortless victory in the Victor Chandler Nunthorpe Stakes at York yesterday.
Richard Hughes always had the 4 to 9 favourite at the head of affairs in the £200,000 dash and as soon as he moved out of first gear, the response was immediate as Oasis Dream swept clear of his opponents.
Ultimately, the winning margin of two and a half lengths did scant justice to the supremacy he showed over his rivals, who were headed home by The Tatling.
The runner-up, a 9 to 1 chance, ran a huge race for trainer Milton Bradley who was having his first representative at Group One level.
But it was not really a fair contest as Oasis Dream came home on a different plane. Owned by Khalid Abdulla and trained by John Gosden, he covered the five furlongs in 56.20 seconds - just 0.04 seconds outside the record set by Dayjur in this race in 1990.
"He should have broken the course record really," said Gosden. "But Richard was busy looking at himself on the big screen and posing. I will have to have a word with him about that!
"He wasn't doing anything in front. He could have won by five or six (lengths) but he was playing around, pricking his ears, changing his legs and looking at the crowd.
"In all my time in America and here I have never trained anything as fast as this horse.
"But the thing is, he isn't just fast - he has a fantastic temperament too."
Gosden is now hoping Oasis Dream's relaxed demeanour will enable him to make a tilt at the Breeders' Cup meeting at Santa Anita on October 25th.
But instead of the Sprint, it will be the Mile contest which Gosden wants to target.
"In the Sprint you have got to draw pretty nicely, you want to be in three, four, five or six," he explained.
"If you miss the kick then that's it - you get dirt in your face and you're climbing. I've been in America long enough to know the difference between a Breeders' Cup Sprint horse and a Breeders' Cup Mile horse.
"I am totally confident about him staying an easy mile. A mile at Ascot might be different but the two-turn mile at Santa Anita will suit him.
"He will have to learn to turn but he has the speed and the attitude to win. The last horse to win here and then go on to take the Mile was Last Tycoon. I will have to show Richard the tapes of Yves Saint-Martin, who was brilliant, riding him."
Oasis Dream could first go to Haydock for the Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup. "As long as it's not a bog he will go there, but the question is whether he will have another race between then and the Breeders' Cup," Gosden said.
Bookmakers Coral offer 6 to 1 about Oasis Dream winning the Breeders' Cup Mile.
Carry On Katie defied a dramatic drift in the betting to win the Group Two Peugeot Lowther Stakes with a record-breaking performance under Frankie Dettori.
And she is now best priced at 16 to 1 for the 2004 renewal of the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
Having been on offer at even money earlier in the day, she drifted out to 3 to 1, but she never really gave her supporters a really anxious moment, making all the running and staying on strongly in the closing stakes to beat Badminton by two lengths.
The American-bred filly was completing a rare "Gimcrack-Lowther" double by a trainer for Jeremy Noseda who had sent out Balmont to win the former race on Wednesday.
Balmont had set a two-year-old course record of one minute 11.07 seconds for the six furlongs, but his stable companion lowered it to 1:10.67 and when asked what the plans were now for Carry On Katie, he said: "She sticks to six furlongs for the Group One Cheveley Park now - and she gets seven furlongs with no problem."
