Supremacy wins Middle Park Stakes to continue Clive Cox's excellent run

For a trainer who now has 11 Group One winners to his name, Clive Cox’s public profile has rarely been high, so perhaps it is fitting that a Flat season with empty grandstands is turning into one of the best of his career.

Supremacy, who made all the running to win the Middle Park Stakes here, was Cox’s second Group One winner of the shortened campaign and his fourth individual Pattern-winning juvenile, which will give his Lambourn yard plenty to look forward to over what promises to be a very long winter.

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Supremacy was an easy winner of the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood in July but other two-year-olds have risen to prominence since then and he was the 13-2 fourth-favourite in a field of eight. He had most of his rivals in trouble two out, however, and while Lucky Vega, the favourite, launched a strong challenge in the final furlong, Adam Kirby’s partner kept finding more.

In addition to the Richmond, Cox also took the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot with the 100-1 shot Nando Parrado, while Isabella Giles landed the Rockfel Stakes here on Friday and could run in the Group One Fillies’ Mile next month.

One more Group One would give the trainer his best haul at the top level in well over two decades with a licence. “It’s been a tremendous year for us in spite of everything,” he said, before addressing Supremacy’s long odds. “I don’t know why, people have very short memories, don’t they?

Nottingham 1.00 Encourage 1.30 Percy’s Lad 2.05 Modmin (nap) 2.40 Aaddeey 3.15 Herman Hesse (nb) 3.50 Beat The Heat 4.25 Bernardo O’Reilly 5.00 Ugo Gregory

Chester 1.15 Echo Beach 1.50 Fox Duty Free 2.25 Lady Sansa 3.00 Selected 3.35 Ejtilaab 4.10 Finoah 4.45 Edinburgh Castle

Musselburgh 1.40 Mayaas 2.15 Avoir Star 2.50 Machree 3.25 Northern Society 4.00 Nirodha 4.35 Donnelly’s Rainbow  5.10 It Had To Be You 5.40 Good View 

“The two-year-old crop especially have been amazing this year and it’s a relief [that they are all different types]. Nando is looking to explore seven furlongs, this one [Supremacy] is just all sprinting and Isabella Giles is probably one of the best we’ve ever had in that division.”

In the first of the day’s juvenile Group Ones, Alcohol Free turned found the form of her defeat by Happy Romance at Salisbury this month to emerge as a convincing winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes. Andrew Balding, her trainer, said: “She didn’t have a great draw at Salisbury and we only had a couple of lengths to find with Happy Romance, who was going to be one of the favourites here.”

Supremacy is the favourite at around 8-1 for next year’s Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, while Alcohol Free was cut to around 20-1 for the 1,000 Guineas back here in the spring.