Charlie Appleby’s globetrotting star Rebel’s Romance enjoyed a successful homecoming when gamely claiming the Boodles Yorkshire Cup.
The seven-year-old has made just a handful of British appearances during his career but has won big races all around the world, including two victories in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
A winner in Qatar earlier this year, he was only fourth in the Sheema Classic at Meydan most recently but was sent off the 11-10 favourite to stamp his authority in the York Group Two.
Aidan O’Brien’s Continuous, sporting first-time blinkers, dictated the early pace, with William Buick not far away in the leader’s slipstream aboard the market leader.
Stepping up in trip, Buick waited to unleash Rebel’s Romance in the straight, sending his mount on as the field of five charged for home spread across the width of the Knavesmire.
He held a narrow advantage heading into the final furlong and while Epic Poet and Sweet William began to close, Rebel’s Romance dug deep to repel their challenges by a head and three-quarters of length respectively.
“He’s a real favourite with his own little fan base and rightly so for what he’s achieved through his career,” said Appleby.
“A few people asked why we came here, but I just felt in his last few runs over a mile and a half that I didn’t know if he still had that kick you need at the top level.
“We didn’t want to go travelling just yet, we’ve got a bit of a career-end programme for him that will hopefully involve staying in Europe for the summer and then our American trips towards the second half of the season.
“I’m a believer in that if you go that steady, then any horse has a chance. Whether they’re a Group One horse or a handicapper, they can all sprint for a couple of furlongs.
“When they went as steady as they did I thought it could be interesting, I’d rather they’d have gone a decent gallop but I was always confident he was going to win.
“We’ve seen time and time again that he is one of those horses that just puts his head down and goes again when something comes to him.
“When William got off he said ‘he’s a mile-and-a-half horse, we got away with it’. Had he gone and won a more stoutly-run race then we might have thought about Goodwood but on the evidence of what William said, I think we’ll go back to a mile and a half.
“He’ll probably go to Germany and he’s in the Coronation Cup. We’ll see how he comes out of this race but he has plenty of options, I’d imagine he’ll go to Canada and then back to the Breeders’ Cup.”
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