Quorto makes it three from three in National

Quorto maintained his perfect career record when taking the step up into Group 1 company in his stride in the Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes at the Curragh this afternoon.

The Godolphin colt went to post the 11/8 favourite for the seven-furlong contest and came through to battle it out a furlong-and-a-half from home with market rival Anthony Van Dyck

The Dubawi colt quickened up to lead over a furlong out but did drift over to his right inside the final furlong.

A stewards enquiry was called after he leaned in towards his rival but he was clear best at the line, scoring by a length-and-a-quarter, and the result was unaffected.

The winner had won both his previous starts at Newmarket and was making his first start since taking the Group 2 Superlative Stakes in mid-July.

A proper dust-up between two smart young colts - Charlie Appleby's Quorto gets the better of Anthony Van Dyck and remains unbeaten in the Group 1 @Goffs1866 Vincent O'Brien National Stakes! @curraghrace pic.twitter.com/lpoICcytvF

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) September 16, 2018

“He came into this race with what I thought was a very nice profile having won over six at Newmarket and then stepped up to seven in the Superlative and saw the race out well,” said Appleby.

“Coming here today we were very confident. Full credit to the team at home, Mark Rimmer rides her.

“He's a typical Dubawi and we went through that stage from the Superlative to here where he went a little bit quiet on us and he needed all of that time.

“That's just typical with Dubawi. I'm in a fortunate position that I've probably got the most experience with Dubawis. They go through that patch but in the last ten days he's really come back to where he was before the Superlative.

“The team were all confident coming into today that he was as good as he was if not a bit better than he was going to the Superlative.

“We had a lot of confidence and it was just a matter of seeing where we were. I feel now he's put himself there as hopefully a contender for the Guineas next year.

“His highness Sheikh Mohammed was straight on the phone afterwards and delighted with the result.

“It's a nice conversation to have but I'm sure we'll probably be looking towards the Dewhurst.

“On the dam's side you have a lot of stamina as she was placed in the Oaks. He's a horse that, from what we've seen so far, he travels very well through his races.

“If you were to pin me down now I'd say a mile was his trip and a mile-and-a-quarter might be his maximum just because of the make up of the horse.

“He's very much a Dubawi, he is his father, the stamp of him, the way he travels through his races, his mentality. He's showing a lot of Dubawi about him.

“If you said that hypothetically he'd be a Derby horse I'd be sitting on the sidelines for the minute and saying 'well let's try and get hopefully get a Guineas out of the way and work our way from there'.

“He's an exciting horse. The Dewhurst is obviously he most logical route but I'll flag up that he is a Dubawi and he's Dubawi's first Group 1 winning two-year-old colt.

“If we needed to put him away for the winter now that wouldn't worry me at all and we can live the dream until the spring.

“As a rule this time of year is the time the Dubawi two-year-olds start to thrive so that's why I'm excited about this horse in respect of what he's done through the summer months.

“I'm privileged that a lot of Dubawis have gone through my hands and I hope I'm learning on the job.

“He'll tell us if he's coming out of this race well and if not it doesn't worry me because I know from two to three is the time when they do well.

“The way he won his first two starts he probably didn't learn a lot on the job. It's very nice to have a horse that travels but when you start stepping up in the calibre of race sometimes you'd wish that they had got into a bit of a dog-fight.

“On his two starts before he hasn't done that and he's learned today. For sure, mentally, he's going to have learned a lot today.”

Aidan O'Brien said of the runner-up:-

“We were very happy. We always thought that he'd want to step up to a mile and only because he won the Futurity so well we stayed at seven.

“Coming to the line he coming again. The winner is a very good colt but we were very happy with our horse. He'll handle better ground and will be very comfortable on better ground.

“He was really coming to the line and he'd be very comfortable stepping up in trip if he needs to. We were delighted with the run.”