'I'm glad I came' - who needs to be in Barbados when you can ride winners on the Tapeta at Wolverhampton?

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Choosing Wolverhampton over Barbados paid off for Oisin Murphy, who landed a feature race double for Andrew Balding on Cool Hoof Luke and The Lost King.

The champion jockey chose to stay closer to home rather than take the mount he had been offered on Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup favourite Divin Propos.

"It's been a good day and I'm glad I came, they're two nice horses," said the rider, whose place on the Garrison Savannah market leader was taken by Tom Marquand.

Cool Hoof Luke made all in the BetMGM Lady Wulfruna Stakes, despite early keenness on just his second outing since he landed the Gimcrack Stakes at York in 2024.

"He doesn't want to make the running but I didn't want to sit last because I thought we wouldn't go that fast," said Murphy. "In an ideal situation he was going to be second or third with cover, but I didn't achieve that. The horse did really well to save enough. 

"The start before the Gimcrack, we ran him at Goodwood because we felt he'd get seven furlongs, and I made the running on him there and went too fast. I was worried about repeating the error, but I got away with it.

"As long as the horse stays healthy, he has a very bright future. He's a beautiful model and that was quite a deep race. It was only his second run back in a year and a half and it was an excellent performance."

Murphy gave The Lost King a masterful ride to land the BetMGM Lincoln Trial, up with the pace from the off despite King Power's four-year-old being drawn 11 of 12.

"The horse is nice to ride, particularly going left-handed," said Murphy. "It set up well, I was glad it worked out. Today he was a gentleman, he didn't get excited in the prelims, he was good in the gate and he's beaten some quality horses there. 

"My horse is only four, he's lightly raced and it's great for King Power and Andrew Balding."

The Lost King is a 25-1 chance for the Lincoln with Paddy Power. King Power assistant racing manager Pippa Tuthill said: "We'll see about the Lincoln – if it's soft ground, he'll probably go to all-weather finals day. He'll go to one or the other."

Worth his weight in gold 

Having spent many years weighing countless jockeys, former clerk of the scales Derrick Blake is now getting into the habit of welcoming them back to the winner's enclosure.

Billy Loughnane was the latest to return in triumph after landing the 6f handicap on Knebworth, which Blake part-owns.

"That was all very smooth," Blake said. "Billy always thought he was going to win.

"Knebworth has been a star for us. We've had him since he was a yearling and we were surprised to be able to call him Knebworth — he's out of Stereophonic and Stereophonic played at Knebworth.

"That's his ninth win for us and we hope he'll go to Doncaster for the Lincoln meeting."

But that is not all Blake has to look forward to as he said: "We've got another one that we think is better than this.

"Sea Founder trotted up at Lingfield last week and we think he's a bit special. He runs at Chelmsford on Thursday."

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