Quickthorn looks a star in absolutely routing Lonsdale Cup rivals

Quickthorn turned the Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup Stakes into a procession as Hughie Morrison’s stayer continued his rise up the staying ranks.

Second in both the Further Flight Stakes and Sagaro Stakes in April, he went on to land the Group Three Henry II Stakes at Sandown before adding the Group Two Prix Maurice de Nieuil at ParisLongchamp last month.

With Stradivarius and Trueshan both absent, he brought up his hat-trick in facile fashion on the Knavesmire, with Tom Marquand dictating terms aboard the 9-4 winner to make every yard – and in a quick time.

Allowed an easy easy lead in the early stages, he extended his advantage to upwards of 10 lengths as the field travelled down the back, with the gap only betting bigger in the home straight, where Marquand was able to comfortably cruise home in splendid isolation.

He returned a winning distance of 14 lengths back to runner-up Coltrane, and both Coral and Paddy Power subsequently cut the five-year-old to 7-1 from 12-1 for the British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot.

A clearly impressed Marquand said: “I’m pretty blown away by him. Obviously I’ve ridden him the last few times and got a really good feel off him at Sandown and in France. When I pulled up in France I felt like I had a couple of gears left, but ultimately on these stayers you might be kidding yourself a bit.

“I could have broken his stride but what’s the point, he’s an exuberant stayer with a full tank under him and we went steady enough that he doesn’t overcook it.

“I knew I’d stretched away down the back, at the two I gave him a flick as he was looking at the crowd but I heard the commentary and looked at the big screen and was able to take a sit.

“You almost wish the big guns were here to see what might have happened. He also did it on ground that was probably quicker than ideal.

“I’m hugely excited for what the future might hold as he’s only just getting going.”

Morrison added: “We’ve got three options, the Prix Royal-Oak, the Prix du Cadran and the Long Distance Cup. He is in the Irish St Leger, but he’s had a hard enough race there.

“He’s quick and a flat track helps him, Tom said he didn’t enjoy going down the hill at Sandown.

“I’m a believer that with horses you think need soft ground you can get away with it on a level track and they do a great job with the ground here.

“If you’d seen him work last Saturday you wouldn’t have fancied him, he couldn’t catch a horse rated 44 so I was pretty pessimistic the last few days!

“He just keeps galloping. I think he’s still improving and I’m disappointed the other two didn’t turn up. He’s improved a stone this year. We’ll never know if he’d have beaten the other two today, but he’d have certainly given them a race.”

Andrew Balding said of Coltrane: “He ran a great race in the circumstances but just couldn’t match the winner, obviously.

“I’m not sure where we’ll go next at the moment.”

In third was Reshoun, whose trainer Ian Williams said: “We have to be happy with third as first thing this morning, on that performance, we probably wouldn’t have finished any closer than fifth.

“It’s a nice result. It’s a shame for York that the race fell apart at the last moment, but it had the potential to do so, which is why Reshoun was declared.

“He’s picked up some decent prize-money, everybody is happy and we’ll find somewhere to go next.”