Qatar Racing Limited-owned Kameko bounced back in the Shadwell Joel Stakes (Group 2), at Newmarket yesterday with a fantastic victory.
The three-year-old trained by Andrew Balding had not won since his success in the 1,000 Guineas (Group 1) in a record time at Newmarket in May.
Yesterday, Kameko, under Oisin Murphy, chased the leaders in the Shadwell Joel Stakes and, despite looking a little lethargic early on, he showed a good turn of foot in the last two furlongs to win by half-a-length in front of Regal Reality while Benbatl finished a further half-a-length behind in third.
Kameko was one of the two three-year-olds in the race and, being a Group 1 winner, he had to give some weight to his elders.
Murphy said, “There’s a lot of pressure on the fastest Guineas winner ever, but there were no options for him and I don’t think there have been many three-year-olds that could give weight to horses like Benbatl. He’s definitely a miler and he might get an easy ten (furlongs) on fast ground, but it would be nice to make him as good a racehorse as he can be. So much hard work has gone into him to keep him sound and organised. It’s a huge team effort.
“Sheikh Fahad buys plenty of horses and breeds as best he can to find champion horses and now he’s found two.”
Oisin Murphy (right) rides Kameko to victory in the Shadwell Joel Stakes (Group 2) at Newmarket yesterday. (Racing Post)