Kingman, the season’s outstanding miler and currently top of the Cartier Horse of the Year leader board, recorded his fourth and perhaps most impressive Group One success of the season when he burst two-and-a-half lengths clear of Anodin to win the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville on Sunday, 17 August 2014.
Persistent rain in the days leading up to the race left Kingman’s participation in doubt until late on Sunday morning, but the soft going took none of the edge off his ability to quicken instantly in the closing stages, having been held up in last place for much of the race as Red Dubawi set a steady pace.
James Doyle, his jockey, made smooth progress to challenge inside the final quarter-mile despite the demanding conditions, and Kingman put the result beyond doubt in a matter of strides as Olympic Glory, his main market rival, failed to find any response on the way to a third-place finish. Rizeena, the Coronation Stakes winner at Royal Ascot in June, was fourth.
“It’s a shame they went so slowly early on because then it turned into a dash to the line,” Doyle said. “I wasn’t sure that he would be able to go and do his usual thing on the ground, but he was just the same Kingman when I asked him to pick up as he’s always been.”
John Gosden, Kingman’s trainer, said after the race that the decision to let him take part had been down to his owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah. “It was a 50-50 in my mind,” Gosden said, “and a very sporting gesture by the Prince. I didn’t think he was entirely in love with the ground, it was different to anything else he had faced, but he’s got a wonderful temperament and showed he can cope with anything. It was a muddling pace, and James kept wondering when they were going to quicken it up. You had to be impressed with the way he went and won his race, the good thing was that he completely switched off. The plan is now the QEII [at Ascot on 18 October], which has always been his end-of-year objective.”
(source: The Guardian)
