Scott in ‘dreamland’ with Caballo De Mar-vellous Caballo De Mar has George Scott in “dreamland” following his tremendous effort in the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at ParisLongchamp on Thursday. The Victorious Forever-owned gelding was an 18-1 outsider in the French capital, despite already tasting success at elite level in the Prix du Cadran last October. In the hands of champion jockey Oisin Murphy, the five-year-old showed plenty of heart to come out on top by a short neck from William Haggas’ Santorini Star, with the Joseph O’Brien-trained Al Riffa a further short-head behind in third. The Gold Cup at Royal Ascot has always been Caballo De Mar’s big target, but the Eve Lodge handler felt his stable star needed another run before that goal and was richly rewarded with more Group One success. “I’m just blown away by him,” Scott said. “He’s one in a million – with his profile, where he came from and his rate of progression. “I’ve had so many messages about him and what a cool horse he is, which has been really amazing. I think I said in my social media posts that I’m just in dreamland with him. “I feel very lucky to have him. I don’t know why I got to find him, I just feel so lucky that he’s ours. “The guys have done an amazing job with him here, and he’s a very uniquely-minded horse. He’s quite independent and he wants to do what he wants to do so we’ve found a persistence that seems to suit him at the yard and he’s much loved. “I always like to race my horses when I can. I really feel they improve for racing and it suddenly felt a long way to Ascot with him – the way he was behaving. “Now it’s perfect because I’ll just be able to freewheel him to Ascot rather than really get into him to get him to keep him fit, so I think it’s actually going to be a huge benefit to him having had that run. “You saw from his race record last year that he doesn’t miss a fight. He will run regardless, but the only thing that is slightly worrying is if they have a really dry, hot week like it is this week.”
