The famous turf at Epsom Downs proved no bother at all for Totally Charming (4-1 Joint-Favourite), who came home the comfortable winner of the World Pool Handicap (1m 113y) on Ladies Day to bring up a 24-1 double for winning jockey William Buick.
A four year old son of Charming Thought, Totally Charming came in to today’s race on the back of success on the All-Weather at Lingfield Park on Good Friday and all of his three previous victories had come at All-Weather venues.
In today’s contest, Totally Charming led entering the final furlong and came home a comfortable length and a half to the good over Revich (9-1).
Winning trainer George Boughey, said: “He’s been training well. The ground was always going to be a bit of a question mark; he’s probably only run on turf once, but he’s progressive.
“He’s a horse we thought we might put in the Royal Hunt Cup - we thought we’d try to get him in, but over the last 10 or 12 years he wouldn’t have got in off that mark, so we thought we’d come here.
“He’s an agile horse and there are big handicaps at Goodwood and the likes for him. But he’s progressing; mentally he’s a lot more relaxed now. He’s a colt whom we gelded, and he’s maturing.
“He only did one bit of work since he last ran. He’s a very athletic horse who doesn’t take a huge amount of training, and he worked well with good horses, and that was good enough for me.
“He’s bred to be a turf horse, I thought he’d handle it and there was a bit of a market move which might have been the owners standing behind me! The McAlpines have been big supporters of mine since I started training; Sam Haggas buys the horses and it’s been a bit of a plan to bring him here. It’s nice when a plan comes off.”
William Buick, the successful jockey, said: “It was very straightforward for me and he is up and coming. He likes that ground as he likes to get his toe in. It was a pleasing performance.
“You never know (if they can translate it from the all-weather to the turf) until they do it but George thought he could do it.
“I was really happy throughout the race and the horse was responding to everything. The pace was good and that really helped him.”
Richard Spencer, trainer of runner-up Revich, said: “He rarely runs a bad race and we’re very pleased with that, the winner was well-touted and we’ve given him 4lbs so he’s run a great race. He’s in the Royal Hunt Cup so we’ll see how he comes out of this. He takes his racing very well touch wood, so it could be a possibility.”
Alastair Donald, representing owners King Power Racing, said of third home Fantastic Fox (11-1), said: “Fantastic Fox is a talented horse, but he was losing it before his races and so gelding has really helped. I think if they had gone a stronger pace there he would have been closer, as he was the only horse finishing really.
“He can step up in trip and I think there are nice races later on for him - maybe a Cambridgeshire, as even softer ground would suit him better. He’s in the Hunt Cup, but we’ve got Greatgadian and maybe Notre Belle Bete in there too and it would depend on the ground.”
