New king Cole lands first Group race success with Dr Rascal in Vintage Stakes

Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here

It is never easy taking over from a father who won just about everything and so Dr Rascal's success meant an awful lot to his trainer as well as his jockey.

Paul Cole was a modern-day legend, a man renowned for landing the Derby and King George with Generous and numerous top two-year-old races, including the Vintage Stakes three times.

Follow that? Well, 12 months after succeeding him on the licence, following five years of joint operation, Oliver Cole scored a maiden Group-race success solely in his own name by landing another Vintage – 30 years after Putra had first put the Cole name on the race's roll of honour.

He was quick to credit his father for being in the position he is now and stressed: "No him, no me. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here."

Cole also paid tribute to the team at Whatcombe and said: "Big thanks to all the team at home, they do a great job. They get up at 4am and I get up at 5am. It's not just me, there's a big group at home that work so hard – I'm very proud of all of them."

There could be even bigger success to celebrate this autumn as Dr Rascal is set to be aimed at the Dewhurst Stakes, a Group 1 race that Cole snr won with Generous in 1990.

The colt is now unbeaten in three runs and did the job well here, dashing through a gap on the inside rail to lead inside the final furlong and scoring by half a length under Kaiya Fraser, who was also landing his first Group race win.

"It's a nice result, I'm very happy for the owners, the lads and everyone," Cole said. "I wasn't nervous before the race because I'm a big believer in him. You only get nervous when you're not quite sure but I knew he would put his best foot forward. We knew he was a classy horse. He's pretty uncomplicated."

Oliver Cole after Dr Rascal's winCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

"He's a very good horse, we'll probably look to the Dewhurst or something like that; he's got so much class and so much speed and he's very well bred, we're very lucky to have him in our stable. We're not used to these kinds of horses so back to the drawing board. The Royal Lodge probably not. I'll have to go away and have a think about it."

Ryan Moore finished second on Haffner for Aidan O'Brien, who said: "We're very pleased with the run. Ryan was delighted and thought he ran a lovely race. He'll stay further and will get a mile this year." 

Favourite Al Hudaiba was another short head away in third under William Buick and trainer Charlie Appleby said: "Will said the ground was quick enough for him, which he did comment on at Newmarket last time.

"He's a Dark Angel, and they tend not to mind a bit of juice in the ground, and coming down hill he was feeling it a little bit. I'll probably go travelling with him. Canada for the Summer Mile screams out."

Read more:

Scandinavia lands decisive Goodwood Cup victory after loose-horse drama hampers Trawlerman 

The double is on! Lake Forest in contention for remarkable Glorious Goodwood feat - has any horse managed it recently? 

Sign up to your choice of our free and RP+ newsletters

Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers can get a fantastic mix of news, tips, comment and insight sent straight to their inbox every day, from Chris Cook's award-winning morning newsletter The Front Runner every weekday at 7.30am and our unmissable daily form package The Edge at 8am, to different weekly emails from the likes of Tom Segal, Paul Kealy and Lee Mottershead every evening at 6pm as part of The Ultimate Daily.

Also available to arrive direct to your inbox free of charge are the likes of On The Nose, our daily morning news bulletin, The Ante-Postman, in which tipster Robbie Wilders outlines his best long-range bets every Wednesday, and The Punt, our essential Saturday tipping service delivered every Friday evening at 7pm.

Head here now to view our full range of newsletters.