Colours record first success since joining O'Brien Speak In Colours recorded his first success since joining Joseph O'Brien, as he took the Group 3 Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club Phoenix Sprint Stakes. Twice successful in the UK when trained by Marco Botti, the son of Excelebration was beaten by just a short head on his debut for O'Brien at Navan in April. He was then third in a Group 3 at Naas, before finishing fourteenth of twenty-two in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. Sent off at 4/1 this afternoon, the grey victor raced towards rear early on under Donnacha O'Brien. He took closer order from halfway and was ridden to challenge from the two furlong pole, hitting the front from a furlong out before going on to score by a length and a quarter. The ten-year-old Gordon Lord Byron (10s to 8s) finished second under Billy Lee for Tom Hogan, while the 6/4 favourite Spirit Of Valour was a neck back in third for Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien. The winning trainer said: "He had a couple of nice runs earlier in the year. He was a bit disappointing in Ascot but that was a funny race and it's nice to get him back on track today. "He had good form on good ground as a two-year-old so we weren't worried about that and it was a pretty quick time. "Donnacha said he was happy throughout. He said he put him in gear and he got to the front a bit sooner than he wanted but he was comfortable the whole way. "He has Haydock (the 32Red Sprint Cup Stakes) and all those options. We wanted to get today out of the way and now we'll talk to the owners see from there. He handles an ease in the ground too." STEWARDS REPORT * R.C. Colgan, rider of Mr Scarlet (GB) trained by Ms. Sheila Lavery, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount lost a shoe in running. Additional reporting by Gary Carson
