Aidan O’Brien’s three year old colt Paddington may have started the season in handicap company but he’s quickly elevated himself to the head of Europe’s miling division with a win in the Sussex Stakes backing up his recent win in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot
The ground at Goodwood had come up heavy by the time the Sussex Stakes was run, incessant rain overnight and all day at the track making the underfoot conditions a real test. It was a test that neither Paddington or jockey Ryan Moore shirked with the jockey sending Paddington into the lead early in the race to make his own running.
The pace was moderate but searching enough in the conditions and it wasn’t until they turned into the straight that the action started to happen.
First to challenge was Frankie Dettori aboard John and Thady Gosden’s star filly Inspiral. Dettori had manoeuvred his way to the stand side rail, a place where many of the meeting’s winners had been successful from. It initially looked an inspired move as the filly looked to be travelling strongly as she went upsides Paddington but almost as soon as she got there she faltered and by the two furlong pole her effort was spent and she faded to finish last of the five.
This left French challenger Facteur Cheval, already placed in three Group races this season, to emerge as the main challenger but Paddington was always finding more and asserted in the final furlong to win by a length and a half. Facteur Cheval was second, amply rewarding the enterprise of his team in sending him across the channel to contest this valuable prize.
The normally reticent Ryan Moore was full of praise for the winning colt. “It’s a hard thing to say but he gives you the feel that he’s as good a horse as I’ve rode,” he said, adding “I think he’s exceptional.”
Asked if he was worried about the bottomless ground Moore was quick to retort “With him I wouldn’t care if it was snowing.”
Asked about possible targets for Paddington trainer Aidan O’Brien was quick to emphasise that nothing could be ruled out. “He can go anywhere, really,” O’Brien said. “He can go any trip, I’d imagine – a mile, a mile and a quarter, he could even go further, I don’t know.”
Bookmakers Paddy Power offered up post-race quotes of 2/1 fav for one of the likelier options, the Juddmonte International at York, while they also priced him up for the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, offering odds of 10/1 for the end of season championship.
