Racing: Pursuits springs sprint surprise for Morrison

It was, indeed, a rather peculiar July Cup. Sprinting has been a shabby division in these islands for some time now and its summer gala on the July course yesterday featured 19 eager if not particularly well qualified prospectors. This included the queerness of one of the favourites, Iffraaj, being a handicapper, while the crown was also contested by the creaking limbs of Quito and Bahamian Pirate, respectively eight and 10 years of age. And then there was the story of Pastoral Pursuits.

When Hughie Morrison, the four-year-old's trainer, heard overnight tinkling on his window panes he knew it spelled trouble. "I nearly didn't run because of the ground," Morrison said. "I was staying down the road and I spoke to Michael Prosser [the Newmarket clerk of the course] at six o'clock this morning. He said 10 millimetres of rain and I thought 'oh my God'. I rang up the yard and said 'no we won't'. Then we thought about it and changed our minds. There was really no other Group One we could go for.

"It's our first Group One and it's immense. I can't believe it and I wasn't exactly confident. I was quite relaxed because I didn't expect to win. I was more worried he was going to make a fool of me by running really badly."

Pastoral Pursuits had collected a Group Two at Doncaster last season but there was no blinding light suggesting he was a contender as the 22-1 shot was just one of many outsiders as the field scattered on leaving the stalls.

The decisive move appeared to have been made at halfway, when Steve Drowne and Avonbridge made a surge, but the truly crucial manoeuvres were going on in behind as John Egan pointed his mount at the leader. The Irishman did not genuinely know how his partner would react as he had thrown a leg over Pastoral Pursuits for the very first time in the parade ring. But he did recognise that his ally was moving rather well.

"You would have to say he was a nice pick-up ride," the jockey reported. "I knew I was going to win from two and a half down. That's not often the case in a Group One. I had loads under me. It couldn't have been easier. I couldn't believe he travelled so well in a Group One."

It would be easy to identify this as a freak result, but Pastoral Pursuits won, going away, by a length and a half in a respectable time on the softish going. We will learn more about the horse, who goes to the National Stud next season, when he runs next month in Deauville's Prix Maurice du Gheest.

Team Ballydoyle found their way back into the winners' enclosure with victory in the Group Three Superlative Stakes. Horatio Nelson is now 16-1 for the 2006 Derby as he beat a field which included another great English hero of international conflict, John Terry. Certainly he has a pedigree for Classic assignments as a son of Danehill out of dual Oaks winner Imagine.

Horatio Nelson is considered more of a stayer than Aidan O'Brien's Wednesday July Stakes winner, Ivan Denisovich. With George Washington also in the equation, he is just one of several talented juveniles at his Co Tipperary yard. "The important thing is not to let them know they're any different," O'Brien said. "They'd be working away in a bunch there and you would have a fair idea which the good ones were but they wouldn't know. It's important they don't know. You can tell by looking at them."

The Bunbury Cup went for the second time to the 2002 winner Mine, who was also beaten a short-head in the race two years ago by Patavellian. The seven-year-old also collected the Victoria Cup and Royal Hunt Cup last year, further proof that big handicaps on a straight course are his sporting sustenance.

"This is a very happy day," James Bethell, the winning trainer, said, "in contrast to yesterday when I buried my old friend Richard Whiteley. He was a great supporter of ours."

HYPERION'S SELECTIONS FOR TODAY'S OTHER MEETINGS:

LINGFIELD: 2.15 Chaski 2.45 Norcroft 3.15 Solar Power 3.50 Katiypour 4.25 Kryssa 5.00 Mikao

WOLVERHAMPTON: 2.25 Entertain 2.55 Zowington 3.30 Baytown Lulu 4.05 Sierra 4.40 Lady Algarhoud 5.10 Stravmour

Richard Edmondson

Nap: Zhitomir

(York 2.35)

NB: La Cucaracha

(York 3.40)