Victorious Tin Man eyes Ebor meet

Bocca Baciata ridden by Colm O'Donoghue (right) on the way to winning the Kilboy Estate Stakes during day two of the Darley Irish Oaks Weekend at Curragh Racecourse, Co. Kildare, Ireland.

James Fanshawe’s progressive sprinter shaped like a potential Group One performer when making a successful return to action at Windsor in May, only to then blot his copybook when down the field in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at the Royal meeting.

He was sent off the 11-4 favourite for the Hackwood Stakes at the weekend and did not disappoint this time, scything through the field from a position towards the rear, with Tom Queally only letting his mount do the bare minimum to beat Divine by a deceptively cosy head.

Such was the speed he showed that Fanshawe is considering dropping the four-year-old son of Equiano down to the minimum trip at the Ebor meeting on the Knavesmire next month.

The Newmarket trainer said: “He pulled out fine this morning and we’ll just play it by ear as to what we do next.

“We’ll see how the horse is in the next week or 10 days and go from there.

“He is in the race at York and he’s also in the Phoenix Sprint at the Curragh (August 7). The races I really want to go for are the Sprint Cup at Haydock (September 3) and the Champions Sprint at Ascot (October 15), those are the races I’m targeting, so it’s just a case of where we go in between.

“He’s never run over five (furlongs), but he doesn’t lack speed and Equiano was effective over five. I just think the way six-furlong races are run suits him.”

If The Tin Man does take in the Nunthorpe, he will lock horns with last year’s winner, Mecca’s Angel, who bounced back to form in the Sapphire Stakes at the Curragh.

Her trainer, Michael Dods, said: “Everyone thinks she wants it bottomless, but that is her ground. I walked the track with Paul Mulrennan and we said it was beautiful, on the easy side of good.

“That was the ground she had in Longchamp and when she won the Nunthorpe.

“She doesn’t want it firm and easy good is perfect. York will be next, but it’s just nice to get her back today.”

York is also in the reckoning for Seventh Heaven, who provided Aidan O’Brien with a fifth victory in the Darley Irish Oaks.

The Lingfield Oaks Trial heroine struggled in the Investec Oaks at Epsom, which she meant she was down the Ballydoyle pecking order at the Curragh, with Ribblesdale-winning stable companion Even Song dominating the market.

That filly could never get competitive under Ryan Moore, though, whereas Seventh Heaven wore down Architecture in the hands of Seamus Heffernan to deny Hugo Palmer back-to-back successes in the race following Covert Love’s triumph 12 months ago.

The Darley Yorkshire Oaks on August 18 looks likely to be the next port of call, with O’Brien saying in the immediate aftermath: “Seamus was riding her work. He had second pick and wanted to ride her. I was a bit surprised, but Seamus had faith in her and he had been riding her.”

He joked: “We thought she didn’t handle Lingfield and when she didn’t handle that we thought she might handle Epsom. When we went back to Epsom she didn’t handle that either!

“We thought she’d win very easy at Lingfield, but she just won. The filly that was second was second in the Oaks, though, and second again today.

“Obviously the flat track suited better. She loved the ground and the flat track. She could go to York, she’ll love the flat track.”