New Approach 賽後宣佈退役配種
New Approach brought the curtain down on a glittering career by smashing the course record with a six-length romp in the Emirates Airline Champion Stakes at Newmarket.
A sun-blessed afternoon at Headquarters again belonged to County Carlow trainer Jim Bolger, who carried both Group Ones of the day back to Ireland, with New Approach proving the star turn.
Twelve months on from landing the Dewhurst on the corresponding card, the Princess Haya-owned colt returned to sign off his career with yet another top-flight win.
In 11 races he has failed to finish out of the first three and has won eight off his starts, including the Derby at Epsom, where he unleashed a fearsome turn of foot to cap a controversial run up to the race.
An injury curtailed his race programme mid-summer but he returned better than ever to land the Irish Champion Stakes and now the English version.
The 6-5 favourite and his pacemaker Upton Grey controlled matters until the three-furlong marker when Kevin Manning sent New Approach about his business.
The son of Galileo then poured it on under hands-and-heels riding to shave almost a second off the track record, clocking a time of 2mins 00.13secs.
In doing so he became the first horse since Sir Ivor in 1968 to follow up a Derby win in the Champion Stakes - and only the third in history to win both of those races in addition to the Dewhurst.
"He is unique in lots of ways. We have had to play it by ear and treat each little idiosyncrasy as they occurred," said Bolger, whose charge now heads for a stud career with Darley.
"He was in super form coming up to this week and I couldn't have been happier with him. Everyone was confident about him and he was on song a week after Leopardstown - that race put him right.
"He has been improving and was the complete package today. This was the best I have had him all season.
"He had it all worked out himself and gave me the two fingers today. It was his last run and he has done everything right and it is all over now.
"He even stood in the unsaddling enclosure when we put the saddle on and he didn't move.
"He was as near as to perfect as you could get going to the start and he was bombproof during the race.
"He is the finest horse beyond a mile that I have trained and he is a true champion.
"When you can win a Group One with so much left in the tank it shows you how much ability the horse has.
"He is going to stud now and the next time you see him he will be a big burly horse."
Manning added: "He was very impressive today - I think that was his best performance.
"I get the easy job, I'm only on him for 10 minutes but fair credit to the boys in the yard and Jim, they are with him all the time and put all the work in.
"It went perfect, the pace horse, Upton Grey, set a great pace and took me along really well and everything went according to plan."
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