Murtagh hoping to keep Novelist ride Johnny Murtagh has admitted he'd love to keep the ride on King George winner Novellist in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The jockey came in for the mount on the German-trained horse when William Buick was unable to commit to ride at the start of last week and is now understandably keen to maintain the partnership. Reflecting upon the victory, Murtagh told At The Races: "He was hugely impressive. You know, as we said beforehand, there was going to be no hiding place. "He had a nice position, sat fourth, was always cruising, always in control and when I let him go it was surprising how much he quickened - you know it looked like in his videos that he stayed well, but when I let him go he really quickened." Murtagh added that although conditions had been ideal for clocking fast times, nothing should be taken away from Novellist's achievement. "A five-length winner of the King George is pretty impressive stuff and to beat the track record by more than two seconds is very, very impressive," he said. "You can't take anything away from him. "I suppose the tempo of the race is everything, I have to say the ground was really, really nice. They did a good job with watering. It was good to firm but any horse would have let him down on it, it was beautiful Flat racing ground. But going a good pace doesn't always mean you're going to break track records as you're going to be slowing up near the line but this horse wasn't slowing up, he was galloping right out to the line and when Kevin Manning came up upsides me after the line he was off again. "You can't get carried away by times but he has run faster than a lot of great, great horses and hopefully he can go on from this. "I hope I'm riding him in the Arc as I think he's got exactly what it takes, but we didn't discuss it after the race. They were all just happy, looking forward to the Arc and they've got a great contender." Trainer Andreas Wohler is in no rush to decide who will partner Novellist in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Murtagh partnered the colt for the first time at Ascot, but is unlikely to be on board on his next start, with the Grosser Preis von Baden his most likely prep race for the Arc. Under German rules of racing, Murtagh would not be able to ride the horse at Baden-Baden in early September. "It just depends on how he gets on in the next 14 days. We will give him an easier time now and we will probably go for Baden-Baden instead of going to France for a prep race," said Wohler. "We haven't discussed who will ride the horse next time. Because Johnny is a trainer as well as a jockey we wouldn't be allowed to put him on the horse there. Those are the rules in Germany. "We don't want to mess around much. We will have to see. The owner went on holiday after Ascot and when he comes back we will discuss it. "The horse came back early this morning. He was a little bit tired but otherwise he is fine. "It was an unbelievable performance. We always had confidence in him that he was a very good horse, but the way he did it yesterday was unbelievable." Ryan Moore rode Novellist to victory on his previous start in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, while William Buick has also ridden him in the past.
