Under-rated Alfred Nobel 5Y0 Mr Alby gained the third win from his last six starts with a tough performance in the Scarboro Toyota Handicap (1800m) at Ascot on Saturday.
Mr Alby, jumping from the outside at a difficult starting point, led the chase to a tearaway leader, who was 8len. clear the the 800m, before winning by a half-length in a smart 1.49.33.
Bred and raced by Mr Cooni Chua, a strong supporter of Lynward Park stallions for many years, Mr Alby is trained by Paula Wagg at Ascot and was ridden by Shaun O’Donnell.
“I was worried by the barrier,” said Wagg, a former jockey. “There were concerns that he could be caught wide.
“But he just keep going. He has staying blood and I’m quite happy looking for longer races.”
Said O’Donnell: “He toughed it out. He did it all by himself.”
Wagg is right about the ‘staying blood’.
Though Alfred Nobel was a champion Group 1 winning 2Y0 in Ireland, he comes from one of Europe’s best, and most commercial, Classic winning maternal lines.
His grand-dam, Dazzling Park, was the champion European 3Y0 filly in 1999 and is a half-sister to New Approach and Alluring Park, the dam of Was. New Approach’s eight wins included the Group 1 English Derby, Irish Champion Stakes, English Champion Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes and National Stakes. Was won the Group 1 English Oaks.
And Alfred Nobel’s third dam, Park Express, was the joint champion Irish 2Y0 and champion Irish 3Y0 filly in 1985-86. She won both the Irish Champion Stakes and the Lancashire Oaks.