Highland Reel digs deep to win Coronation Highland Reel provided Aidan O'Brien with an eighth victory in the Investec Coronation Cup at Epsom. Despite the late arrival of the winner and his stablemates following a technical fault with their plane back in Ireland, the five-year-old was the 9-4 favourite to claim the fifth Group One success of his globetrotting career. Ryan Moore kept things simple aboard the market leader, sending him straight to the lead, and gradually upped the ante. Hawkbill ranged alongside racing inside the final two furlongs and the pair knuckled down to fight it out. Despite looking a little uncomfortable on the cambered track, Highland Reel found plenty for pressure and began to assert. Hawkbill's fellow Godolphin-owned runner Frontiersman also looked ill at ease on the track but finished strongly to come through and grab second, a length and three-quarters behind the winner. O'Brien said: "I'm delighted with him, he's obviously gone through a lot today, and just before the race, but Ryan gave him a great ride. He hadn't run since Dubai (in March), but he was brilliant. "What happened this morning was unavoidable, the lads were doing their best but things weren't running smoothly. "It's just thanks to everyone, Pat (Keating, travelling head lad) was delighted when he got him here and tacked up and he was very happy. "It's a big team effort and I'm thankful to them all for making it happen. "He's an amazing horse this, he's tough, he has tactical speed and he stays." Highland Reel gives Ballydoyle an eighth Group 1 Coronation Cup pic.twitter.com/l6jmhx41VS— ITV Racing (@itvracing) June 2, 2017
