The Group I Sussex Stakes (1m) at Goodwood last night looked a great contest with English and Irish Two Thousand Guineas winners Kameko and Siskin engaged as well as Queen Anne Stakes winner Circus Maximus, but at the winning post the victor was none of them.
Carrying the familiar colours of Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stud, four year-old Showcasing stallion Mohaather produced a lethal turn of foot to switch around his rivals and run them down, scoring a three-quarter length win over Circums Maximus with Siskin and an unlucky Kameko in third and fourth.
Mohaather is trained by Marcus Tregoning, who was registering his first Group I success since Sir Percy's Derby in 2006.
A Group III winner at two and three, Mohaather was luckless in the Queen Anne on his reappearance this year and then scored an easy win in the Group II Summer Mile at Ascot on July 11.
He got shuffled back to last in the Sussex with a couple of furlongs to run with connections fearing another hard luck story.
“It was a little bit of a nightmare but I knew if Mohaather got out then he'd have the speed. He's got a very good turn of foot. He does find heaps under pressure,” said Marcus Tregoning.
“I'd have been pretty sore if he hadn't been able to win because I thought I had him in really good order. I thought he'd win, all the indications were we had him right.”
A 110,000 guinea purchase for Shadwell from the Tattersalls October Book Two Sale, Mohaather has the overall record of five wins from eight starts.
“He's an aeroplane. In that race, you're talking about the best milers in Europe and I wouldn't say he's made them look ordinary, but he's won very well,” said winning jockey Jim Crowley.
A full brother to multiple Group II winning sprinter miler Prize Exhibit, Mohaather is the best of eight winners and the last foal from stakes-placed Roodeye, who is also the grand-dam of Group I winner Accidental Agent.
He is the third Group I winner among 41 stakes-winners for Showcasing, who stands at Whitsbury Manor Stud at a fee of 55,000 pounds and shuttled to New Zealand for a number of seasons to Haunui Farm.
