Kingman on track to bow out at Ascot after dethroning Toronado
KINGMAN is likely to be aimed at the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in October after underlining his status as the leading miler with victory in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood yesterday.
The John Gosden-trained three-year-old won his Duel on the Downs with Toronado, beating last year’s winner by a length in a frantic finish to an otherwise slow contest featuring just four runners.
Victory was jockey James Doyle’s second of the day and a fifth from six races for Kingman, who has also won the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes this year.
Gosden said the odds-on favourite had improved, adding: “He’s got wiser and cleverer, bigger and stronger. He’s got a great constitution and a good mind.”
Owner Khalid Abdullah’s racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said a decision on whether Kingman would run next year would be delayed until after the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
“The most important thing is to get this year under the belt. We’re incredibly lucky to have such a horse of this calibre,” he said.
“The end game I think might probably be the QEII on Champions Day. That’s going to be an important race for him. Between then and now, how he gets there is up to John, but they are obvious possibilities.”
Doyle’s other win came on Snow Sky, who beat Windshear by a neck in the Gordon Stakes.
The Queen’s mare Estimate runs in today’s Goodwood Cup, despite a recent positive test for morphine.