Gosden not disheartened after narrow defeat for Ombudsman

John Gosden was proud of Ombudsman in defeat after the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner was narrowly denied in a “messy” renewal of the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

The four-year-old was a 6-4 favourite to double his Group One tally following his brilliant display at Royal Ascot last month, but after battling his way to the front inside the final furlong, he was unable to resist the late surge of Delacroix and an inspired Ryan Moore.

“I said beforehand it could be a messy race and I think I was correct,” said Gosden, who trains in partnership with his son Thady.

“We thought Delacroix would go forward and the French horse (Sosie) would sit handy and then of course it was all the other way round, but that happens in small fields.

“It didn’t turn out the way we thought, he was trapped rather wide and has got close to the pace and Delacroix has run us down late.

“It was one of those races you can get with a small field, but full marks to the winner. He has gone and outstayed the lot of them and in the end it was down to stamina.

“Our horse has still run a great race, 17 days (since Ascot) is not ideal, let’s be honest.”

Ombudsman was a neck behind Delacroix at the line, with another Godolphin runner – Charlie Appleby’s 2000 Guineas hero Ruling Court – just under two lengths further away in third.

Ruling Court has had a busy time of things, having finished third in the St James’s Palace Stakes since his Classic triumph at Newmarket, and Appleby was pleased with his performance on what was his first attempt at a mile and a quarter.

“There’s a lot more positives to take out of it than the negative of being beaten,” said the Moulton Paddocks handler.

“None of us expected the race to be run like that, full credit to the winner. But from our own point of view we take a lot of positives.

“He was relaxed in the preliminaries and our plan was not to be in that position, but with the pace there was on in the first couple of furlongs, Oisin (Murphy) had no choice – he had to stay there.

“I’m just delighted with the horse and at the end of the day he’s done very little wrong. He’s not been out of the first three in his career.

“He’ll go to Deauville now for the mile-and-a-quarter race Economics won last year (Prix Guillaume d’Ornano). That was our plan after this and hopefully next year we’re going to be working back from the Prince of Wales’s.”