Thursday, 18 August 2011: Sir Michael Stoute's Sea Moon turned in a most impressive trial for the St Leger in the G2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York.
 | Sir Michael Stoute
Photo by Racing and Sports | |
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The 11-2 chance was settled in arrears by Richard Hughes before making stealthy headway towards the stands' rail along the straight.
Odds-on favourite Seville was there with a furlong to go, but
Sea Moon soon left him easily, pulling right away to score by eight lengths.
Al Kazeem stayed on for second, with Seville passing the post a disappointing third.
Stoute said: "It was highly impressive. He's a horse we've always loved, but he had a few little niggles in the springtime. We were hopeful, but I didn't expect him to win like that.
"He`s a lovely big horse with a good mind, and he's progressed so well since he ran here at York in June.
"On that performance, he's got a great chance in the Leger, for sure."
Hughes said: " Normally when they move that good they don't have a change of gear, but this fellow moves exceptionally well and he picked up very good, too.
"Five furlongs out he picked up a lot and he was always going ever so easily."
Roger Charlton, trainer of runner-up Al Kazeem, said: "The winner is obviously very decent and we wouldn't want to take him on again.
"I'm really pleased with the horse as he hasn`t run since mid-May and we would prefer faster ground.
"We might run him in something like the Arc trial trial at Newbury, but I'm not really sure at the moment."
