Outsider Lake Forest lands Gimcrack Stakes at York
- Planet Sport writer
- 25 August 2023
Lake Forest has his odds slashed for the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket next month after winning the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes.
Lake Forest highlighted his potential star quality when storming to Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Gimcrack Stakes at York.
William Haggas' charge was sent off 16/1 for the Group Two contest, but he arrived at the Knavesmire with some smart form in the book having finished second to Jasour in the July Stakes earlier in the season.
Archie Watson's Action Point had led the field along for the majority of the six-furlong event, but it was those on the near side that came to the fore in the closing stages with the son of No Nay Never and Aidan O'Brien's Windsor Castle second Johannes Brahms bursting clear to dispute the outcome.
It was Tom Marquand's mount who pulled out extra and powered home to score by a length from the Ballydoyle challenger, with Ralph Beckett's King's Gamble a further length back in third. Kylian was the strong-travelling 9/4 favourite, and while ultimately disappointing he twice found trouble in running.
It was the Somerville Lodge handler's second juvenile winner of the week following Relief Rally's Lowther success on Thursday and Lake Forest was cut to 10/1 by the bookies for the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket next month.
The winner had been beaten at odds of 1-3 on his previous start, and Haggas said: "At Newmarket last time he just ran awful. He got upset beforehand, he was stupid to post, he was edgy in the stalls, whereas today he was really calm, good going down and we saddled him in the stables and walked him across.
"Newmarket can be like that when you box them up at home, but whatever happened he didn't run at all.
"Prior to that he had run a very good race in the July Stakes. I had to just put a line through his last run, I had no choice.
"We had always planned to come for this, after his race last time it almost put us off but we thought why not have a go.
"He's owned by a new syndicate so I've no idea who will do the (Gimcrack) speech. I probably put them off coming today, you couldn't fancy him really although I did say to my son I thought he'd run well.
"We've had a good week and we've got a few chances tomorrow."
