Freakish performance from Shaquille as star sprinter ‘does everything wrong’ but still wins the July Cup

IT’S impossible not to love Shaq.

The freakish sprinter from the north who cost less than a weekend in Whitby and keeps putting the big boys in their place.

PAShaquille ran out a decisive winner of the July Cup at Newmarket[/caption]

And freak is the only word you can use to describe the July Cup hero Shaquille, because he has been winning races in ways that shouldn’t be possible.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get anymore dramatic than his success at Royal Ascot, when he reared at the start and lost five lengths but still stormed away at the end, he said ‘hold my beer’.

He again fluffed the start at Newmarket, albeit not as badly as in the Commonwealth Cup, and when jockey Rossa Ryan asked him to make up the lost ground he took off.

It looked to this armchair jockey as if he was out of control, slicing through the field and moving from last to a share of first in the blink of an eye.

Those mid-race moves never work – and Ryan admitted himself that a rapid forward manoeuvre at a point when you should be conserving energy usually ends in disaster.

But this incredibly gifted horse filled his lungs up and went again when the others came to challenge, galloping powerfully through the line to win by a length and a half.

If this is what he can do when he is doing it all wrong, imagine what he can achieve when he gets it right?

It was another stellar day for Malton trainer Julie Camacho who, it’s fair to say, isn’t too fond of the limelight.

Sadly for Julie, the media attention is going to come thick and fast, because she has the best sprinter in Europe on her hands.

It also marked a breakthrough at Group 1 level for Ryan, 23, whose career threatened to hit the buffers when he lost the Amo Racing job last summer.

He has responded with 90 winners already in 2023, which is why Shaquille’s owners came calling with the ride going spare.

Ryan said: “I don’t know what to say. I’m trying to take it all in, I’ve dreamt about a day like this.

“I could feel him fill himself up about three furlongs out, and when I gave him the office he sprinted all the way to the line.

“Nine times out of ten a move like that ends badly, but I didn’t really have a choice, I just had to go with him.

“I didn’t expect to get the ride, but I was extremely happy when the call came and that is a monkey off my back to get the Group 1 on the board.”

He wasn’t the sole act in the Newmarket freak show, as City Of Troy produced a monstrous performance for Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore.

The colt, by super sire and US Triple Crown winner Justify, bounded clear of a smart field to win the Superlative Stakes by six and a half lengths.

Unsurprisingly, he was slashed across the board for next year’s 2000 Guineas and he is now a general 7-2 jolly.

You couldn’t wipe the grin off the usually reserved Moore’s face afterwards, and O’Brien was similarly jiggy.

He said: “He is a very unusual horse and he has an unbelievable mind. No matter what speed you ask him to go he is happy to go.

“He is pure Classic-bred, and he has movement, speed and stamina. It is all rolled into one. He looks like an incredibly special horse.”

That makes two of them, Aidan.

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