Graham Lee and Alpha Delphini edge Mabs Cross to win Nunthorpe Stakes

This always promised to be a day of extremes with a stayers’ race and a five-furlong Group One at the heart of the card and, if the 40-1 chance Alpha Delphini was a surprising winner of the Nunthorpe Stakes, Graham Lee was an appropriate jockey in his saddle. Fourteen years ago, in his former life riding over jumps, Lee won the Grand National on Ginger McCain’s Amberleigh House. Now, after a race that was over in less than a minute, he is the first National-winning jockey to add a Group One sprint on the Flat to his record.

There were plenty of surprises crammed into the 57.18 seconds it took Alpha Delphini to sprint down the straight. The first was the sight of Battaash, the 4-5 favourite, dropping out of contention with a furlong to run, and the second, moments later, when it became apparent that Blue Point, the second-favourite, was also booked for nothing better than third place. Instead it was the 14-1 chance Mabs Cross who pulled away to fight it out with Alpha Delphini and the pair of them flashed across the line as one.

The final surprise came nearly 10 minutes later, when the judge somehow managed to separate the two horses and call Alpha Delphini the winner by a nose.

Lee and Bryan Smart, the winner’s trainer, both said afterwards that they would have been happy with a dead-heat but Smart also felt his jockey might have made all the difference when he suggested that the cheek-pieces normally employed on Alpha Delphini should be left off for Friday’s race.

“He’d been running really well, game as a pebble,” Lee said, “and then when he’s headed, he’s been rallying like mad. I suggested leaving the cheekpieces off so that he could see them coming, and then you might not have to wait until they get past.

“The hardest part of riding him is usually going down to the start. It’s like trying to hang on to a bag of cement on a window sill but he was so relaxed today.”

Lee had a moment to reflect, too, on what has been an almost uniquely varied career in the saddle. “It’s a bit mad, isn’t it?” he said, looking back to his three-length win on Amberleigh House at Aintree. “I’m riding the rollercoaster and enjoying the ride and, when it stops, I’ll get off and say thanks a million.”

Charlie Hills, the trainer of Battaash, was at a loss to explain why his horse ran poorly in the Nunthorpe for the second year running.

“He pretty much ran exactly the same as last year,” Hills said. “The only difference was he didn’t get worked up beforehand. He was probably the last horse off the bridle and never really picked up.

“He’s as good as gold after the race. It’s just one of those things.”

The first odds-on shot on the card proved more dependable as Stradivarius came home a length and a half clear in the Group Two Lonsdale Stakes and landed a £1m bonus in the process.

Stradivarius had already done the hard work by racking up wins in the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup and was sent off at 4-11 to complete the four-timer. He took a while to find his stride for Frankie Dettori but worked his way to the lead once he had hit top speed over a quarter of a mile out and stayed on strongly to the line.

“The highlight was definitely Ascot,” John Gosden, the winner’s trainer, said. “That was a terrific race and we never knew if he would stay the [two-and-a-half mile] trip or not.

“After the first leg we were only thinking of Ascot and after that it [the bonus] became a real possibility. Then of course, after Goodwood, we were only ever going to be thinking about it.

“The owner [Bjorn Nielsen] has been trying to breed a Derby winner for years and now he’s ended up with a Cup horse. It’s an extraordinary achievement. The horse has a lot of determination but also a lot of class.”

Dettori completed a double on the day when he replaced Jamie Spencer, who was suffering with a sickness bug, aboard Kevin Ryan’s Emaraaty Ana in the Group Two Gimcrack Stakes.

“He should get a mile next year, so you’d think about the [2,000] Guineas,” Ryan said. “He’ll run again, possibly in the [Group One] Dewhurst, but nothing’s set in stone.”