'Stable favourite' Pactolus defies veteran status to end two-year losing streak

Age proved to be no barrier for the evergreen Pactolus as he defied a six-year difference between him and his rivals to land a 14th career victory in the 1m2f handicap.

The ten-year-old – owned by the Morley family – claimed his first win since January 2019 with an authoritative front-running display under Marco Ghiani to score by four and three-quarter lengths.

Winning trainer Stuart Williams said: “He still enjoys his racing and he’s a lovely old boy, he’s been very sound all his life. He’s very much a stable favourite and the Morleys love him dearly.

“He's been difficult to win with in the last couple of seasons as he went up high in the handicap for winning a lot of races. It’s taken time to get his confidence back."

The veteran has been at Williams' yard for eight years having been bought by Tom Morley as a two-year-old, but there are no plans to retire the stable stalwart anytime soon.

The trainer added: “He likes fast ground so we’ll keep him on the turf during the summer. At some stage we’ll contemplate retiring him but while he’s running like this we’ll keep him going.”

The all-weather specialist’s only other turf win came at the Norfolk track back in 2018.

Top team strike

John and Thady Gosden added another progressive three-year-old to their ranks as Restitution claimed the 1m3½f maiden on his second start.

The son of Frankel obliged underOisin Murphy at skinny odds of 1-4 despite hanging left in the closing stages.

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