Fallon to keep Montassib partnership intact at Ascot

Cieren Fallon will maintain his successful partnership on Montassib in the Qipco British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

Fallon rides as number two to Tom Marquand at William Haggas’ Somerville Lodge yard, but having been aboard the six-year-old all season, which has brought three wins from four outings, Haggas sees no reason to change a winning team.

His most recent outing was a career-best, a first Group One win in the Sprint Cup at Haydock.

Thankfully for Marquand, Haggas has a very capable second string in Unequal Love, the Wokingham winner who was third at Haydock.

“Tom is our rider, but it would be harsh to take Cieren off, he rode him at Doncaster when he won easily, at Newcastle when he won and Haydock. Tom is very understanding,” said Haggas.

Reflecting on Haydock the trainer admits he thought the position in which Montassib found himself at halfway, at the back of the field, would make winning difficult, but he flew home to catch Kind Of Blue, whom Haggas sees as a big danger this weekend.

“I thought he’d do really well to beat Kind Of Blue as he was on the speed at Haydock and maintained that whereas all the others came from behind, so I think Kind Of Blue will be hard to beat,” he said.

“It’s one of those races where you’d probably get a different result every week.

“Unequal Love ran a great race at Haydock. I’d be concerned about really soft ground for her but she’s got nothing else, she’s going to stay in training so she’s going to run whatever. Hopefully it will be fun.

“I always thought Montassib wanted really soft ground and he’s certainly going to get it.

“Of course Montassib has surprised me, but he’s such a relaxed horse I thought he would stay further so I spent about two years running him over further, much to everyone’s astonishment.

“Now I seem to have found his right trip he’s upped his game a bit. You could say that’s he’s still relatively unexposed at six furlongs, so he has surprised me but in the right way.”