Lake Forest cuts down Lennox rivals

Cieren Fallon timed his challenge to perfection on Lake Forest to get up and win the HKJC World Pool Lennox Stakes at Goodwood.

Last year’s winner Witness Stand and Qirat forced the pace, while in contrast Fallon was content to sit out the back on the William Haggas-trained 10-11 favourite.

Witness Stand set sail for home at the cut-away and pulled two lengths clear in his bid to defend his crown, but Fallon laid down his challenge in the final half-furlong.

He hit the front 100 yards from home, chased gallantly by Rogue Diplomat but the line came too soon for James Owen’s charge and Lake Forest held him by a neck with Witness Stand in third.

Both Lake Forest and Qirat have been declared for Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes and the winner at least looks like he will have a quick turnaround.

“I don’t see why he can’t come here again tomorrow, that’s the plan,” said Maureen Haggas, wife of the winning trainer.

“We’ll see how he is, if we’re happy with him then why not?

“He’s a five-year-old gelding and he hasn’t got to travel anywhere, we don’t know about a mile but he stays the seven well.

“That’s the plan, anyway, anything can happen overnight but that’s our plan.”

She went on: “The race didn’t pan out how we thought it would; we expected them to go fast and it didn’t so it’s a great effort on his part.

“When he was a colt, he was just a bit bolshy, too much testosterone I suppose. He was just a bit ‘I’ll do it if I want to do it, and if I don’t feel like doing it, I’m not doing it’.

“He was difficult before the race sometimes, he would charge headlong through a crowd of people. Today he was so quiet, I rang William and said ‘oh my god, I think there’s something wrong with him he’s so quiet’, he never put a foot wrong.”