Kameko raced into the history books with an impressive success in the Vertem Futurity Trophy at Newcastle on Friday night.
Superb performance – Kameko wins the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy under champion jockey @oismurphy for @AndrewBalding2 at @NewcastleRaces pic.twitter.com/ypO69a9XXT
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) November 1, 2019
Originally due to be the centrepiece of last Saturday’s abandoned fixture at Doncaster, the Group 1 event was swiftly rescheduled to be run at Gosforth Park – making it the first ever top-level contest staged on the all-weather in Britain.
A high-class field of 11 juveniles went to post, with Aidan O’Brien fielding a five-strong team in a bid to match the late Sir Henry Cecil’s record of 10 victories in the race.
The heavily-backed favourite was Ralph Beckett’s runaway Newmarket scorer Kinross – but in the end none of them could land a glove on Andrew Balding’s dominant winner.
Since making a winning debut at Sandown in July, the son of Kitten’s Joy had been touched off by the Clive Cox-trained Positive in the Solario Stakes and O’Brien’s Royal Dornoch in the Royal Lodge.
Sent off at 11/2 for his latest assignment, Kameko travelled strongly in midfield in the hands of newly-crowned champion jockey Oisin Murphy before rocketing three and a quarter lengths clear.
Innisfree fared best of the O’Brien quintet in second, with his stablemate Year Of The Tiger pipping the apparent Ballydoyle first string Mogul to third.
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