The race looked competitive and up for grabs until it counted in the final strides. Mohaather unleashed a powerful turn of foot under Jim Crowley and ran right past Circus Maximus to win the Group 1 Sussex at Goodwood. The previously unbeaten Siskin checked in third. The race was billed as one of the events of the year, but Mohaather didn’t buy it.
Crowley kept Mohaather towards the back of the field until the last sixteenth of a mile. Once he asked Mohaather for his best he seemed to easily charge past the field with nobody being able to even challenge him for the win.
Marcus Tregoning trains Mohaather and who had won the 2006 Derby with Sir Percy had this to say after his charge took the Sussex:
“I’ve had to wait a long time, but we haven’t had the horses. When we left Lambourn we didn’t have very many and it was like starting from the beginning again. Luckily, Sheikh Hamdan supported me and I have to give a big plug to his racing manager Angus Gold, who found this horse as a yearling. I went to look at him and thought he was quite small, but thought we’ll give it a go as Angus is a good judge and we liked the horse’s pedigree.It was a tactical race and we thought it would be. I don’t blame anyone for that; it’s just racing. He struggled to get out as he’s not the biggest, but Jim kept his calm and the horse has that massive kick. He’s very impressive and if he’d got out earlier he’d have won easily – he won easily anyway!”
Photo: Mark Kranham
