Magnificent Quorto captures G1 National

Exciting Dubawi colt Quorto continued to progress and kept his unbeaten record with a terrific performance in the G1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes over seven furlongs on day two of the Irish Champions Weekend at the Curragh, Ireland, on Sunday, 16 September.

The two-year-old remains unbeaten and is building into a strong Classic prospect for next year. This was his third start and follows on from victory in the G2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket in July’

Quorto, with William Buick up, was held up in third and came through smoothly to challenge.

He took over the advantage with more than a furlong remaining and ran on powerfully to defy Anthony Van Dyck by a length and a quarter on good to yielding ground in 1m 24.81s.

Trainer Charlie Appleby explained: “It is lovely to have a horse who travels as well as Quorto does. He did not learn a great deal on his first two starts as he won so well. He got into a fight today and I am confident he will take a lot from the race.

“We are dreaming of going into a Classic career now. He came into this race with what I thought was a very nice profile, having won over six on debut at Newmarket and then stepped up to seven in the Superlative.

“He's a typical Dubawi and I have been in the fortunate position to have seen a lot of them. This is Dubawi’s first European two-year-old G1 winning colt. He is very much the make-up of his father – just the stamp of him.

“The way he travels, he shows a lot of class.

“We went through that stage from the Superlative to here where he had a little quiet spell and he needed all of that time. Full credit to all the team at home, including Mark Rimmer and Marie Murphy.

“It was the last 10 days that he's really come back and started to shine again in his work – Dubawis start to thrive from now on.

“The team were all confident coming into today that he was as good as he was if not a bit better than he was going to the Superlative.

“We had a lot of confidence and it was just a matter of seeing where we were. I feel now he's put himself there as a contender for the Guineas next year.

“His Highness Sheikh Mohammed was straight on the phone afterwards and was delighted with the result.

“It will be a nice conversation to have, but I'm sure we'll probably be looking towards the Darley Dewhurst (G1, 7f, Newmarket, 13 October).

“On the dam's side, you have a lot of stamina as she was placed in the Oaks. If you were to pin me down now, I'd say a mile would be his trip and a mile and a quarter might be his maximum.

“The Darley Dewhurst is obviously the most logical route, but if we needed to put him away for the winter now that wouldn't worry me at all and we can live the dream until the spring.

“It has been some day for his sire Dubawi.”