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Muhaarar completes hat trick of Group I victories

Dubai - The three-year-old home-bred son of Oasis Dream has earlier won the inaugural running of the Commonwealth Cup Gr-1 at Ascot

Muhaarar had to dig deep to win by half a length en route to becoming the first British-trained horse in 25 years to win three Group-1 races in a row at Deauville, France on Sunday.
Owned by Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, who was also present at the racecourse, the three-year-old home-bred son of Oasis Dream has earlier won the inaugural running of the Commonwealth Cup Gr-1 at Ascot and completed a double with the July Cup in Newmarket before he crossed the English Channel to land the Larc Prix Maurice de Gheest Gr-1 over 1,300m.
The Charlie Hills-trained brilliant colt followed in the footsteps of the Blue Stables' legend sprinter Dayjur who has won the Keenland Nunthorpe Stakes Gr-1 at York, Ladbroke Sprint Cup Gr-1 at Haydock Park and the Prix de L'abbaye Gr-1 in France, but he was only unlucky to be denied by a neck in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (Dirt) Gr-1 at Belmont Park where he has made his last appearance. Dayjur was reportedly missed out after infamously jumping a shadow in the closing yards of the race and finished second.
However, after breaking well and taking up a mid-division spot under Paul Hanagan, Muhaarar appeared to be labouring slightly by the mid-point of the race. But, Hanagan quickly went to an all-out drive in the last furlong of the trip.
Just like at Newmarket, it was only in the final furlong that Muhaarar edged ahead of his rivals, ultimately flashing by the post narrowly in front of Esoterique, who was racing at a distance of under a mile for the first time.
Muhaarar is now cut to 15-8 for the Betfred Sprint Cup Gr-1 in September and should he manage to win, he would, the final target would be the Breeders Cup Sprint Gr-1 on the western coast of the Atlantic.
Hills was quoted as saying: "He lost a front shoe and the ground is pretty quick out there so that wouldn't have helped. It walks slower than what it probably rides but he is a champion. Six and a half is probably a good trip for him and I wouldn't be afraid to run him at a mile again.
"When I saw him in the same sentence as Dayjur in the Racing Post I said, 'It's nice to even be considered in the same sentence.' I think now he is proven with three Group 1s and hopefully there are couple more to come this year.
"We will see how he comes out of this race but the obvious race is the Haydock Sprint Cup."