By Emma Berry
Irish raiders dominated the turf races at the Breeders' Cup on Friday and on Saturday morning it was the turn of William Haggas to strike for England with a “mind-boggling” win in Sydney's A$10 million Golden Eagle with Lake Forest (GB) (No Nay Never). Fellow European challenger Lazzat (Fr) (Territories {Ire}) was half a length back in second for Jerome Reynier and Nurlan Bizakov after making the running.
Owned by Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy, Lake Forest continued a phenomenal run of success for the Newmarket trainer with his Australian raiders, Addeybb (Ire) having won three Group 1 races there in 2020 and 2021 followed by the victories of Dubai Honour (Ire) in last year's G1 Ranvet Stakes and G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Haggas has now notched 11 wins in Australia from 23 starts.
“That was great, absolutely amazing. We love our little raids,” said Haggas after watching the Rosehill action from Italy.
Dropped out early by Cieren Fallon, Lake Forest was toward the rear of the 20-runner field for much of the race before launching an audacious run down the rail to claim victory within a few strides of the line.
“It was mind-boggling,” Haggas said. “We've never sent a three-year-old [to Australia] before, so for me that was an experiment, to see how he could cope with it. But we hope that he can come back and be a nice horse next year in England. He'll wait there for 10 days and then come home.”
The winner of the G2 Gimcrack Stakes last year, Lake Forest was bred at Newsells Park Stud by John and Tanya Gunther under the banner of Sahara Group Holdings. The colt took second in the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June and was also runner-up in the G3 Hackwood Stakes before his trip to Australia.
His victory provided a first major international success for Fallon, though it was bittersweet as the jockey was later handed a month's suspension and record A$10,000 ban for careless riding for allowing Lake Forest to drift left into Lazzat. The latter's rider Antonio Orani was also suspended for a month and fined A$30,000 for causing interference to fifth-placed Stefi Magnetica (Aus). Haggas said that Fallon plans to appeal the punishment.
“The French weren't very pleased because we crossed him at the end but it was all over,” Haggas said. “To beat Lazzat was a pretty impressive effort, I thought, because he's a [G1] Maurice de Gheest winner.”
He added, “From a publicity point of view it's all about the Breeders' Cup today but what this horse has achieved is fantastic.”
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