Simple Verse's win gifts double to Murphy

The Classic winner’s hard-fought win in the feature DFS Park Hill Stakes completed a high-profile double for Murphy, who was winning a Group Two race in Turkey on Sunday aboard Blond Me before celebrating his 21st birthday on Tuesday.

Murphy will hope there is more to come – he is due to partner the outsider Orimito in tomorrow’s St Leger as he seeks to add a first domestic Classic to his burgeoning CV that has now seen him record a career best 98 winners in Britain since New Year’s Day.

Yet still the most surprising aspect about the politely-spoken jockey is that he is only 21. It seems an age since he announced himself to racing with a coming of age 9,260-1 four-timer on Ayr Gold Cup day three years ago before taking Doncaster’s Racing Post Trophy meeting by storm the following month with a 390-1 treble.

Just a year ago he was Qatar Racing’s No 2 rider to Andrea Atzeni, who was in the saddle when Simple Verse won the St Leger – the filly, who was first past the post, was subsequently demoted for interference before being reinstated on appeal.

However, when Atzeni chose to rekindle his alliance with Roger Varian in order to ride horses of the calibre of Arc favourite Postponed, the ambitious Qatar operation put their faith in Murphy, the proverbial old head on young shoulders, and he has repaid that loyalty in abundance, starting with Lightning Spear’s win in last month’s celebration Mile.

The win of Ralph Beckett’s Rich Legacy in the Clugston Construction May Hill Stakes was satisfying – Murphy was in the scarlet and gold colours of Qatar Racing – but the Irish-born rider will have derived even more from Simple Verse’s success.

His three previous rides on the filly this season all ended in defeat – albeit at high-profile meetings at Newmarket, Epsom and Royal Ascot – and the Park Hill race, over the St Leger trip of one and three-quarter miles, did not quite go to plan.

With Pretty Perfect and Mill Springs setting a furious gallop, Murphy bided his time before cruising into contention until Simple Verse – trained by the aforementioned Beckett – found herself in a pocket as the winning post neared.

However, once in the clear, Simple Verse called on her courage and class to reel in the front-running Pretty Perfect from the yard of Aidan O’Brien and get up by a neck. Although this Group Two contest was a step down in class, Murphy’s relief was self-evident as connections consider a tilt at the Long Distance Cup on Qipco Champions Day at Ascot next month.

“It’s just relief more than anything. [Yesterday] was only a Group Two and she’s a Classic winner so it was just a simple task really and thankfully we managed to complete it,” said Murphy, whose big race tally also includes the 2015 Ebor on Litigant.

“She was different class to those fillies. It was just about getting her switched off early and let her warm up into the race. The trainer had her in great order.

“Down at the start, she was marching round like she did in the past. [Yesterday] she gave me a great feeling. I got myself stuck in a pocket. I went the inside route to save ground and we went quite quick. Thankfully I had a horse good enough to get me out of trouble.”

Murphy thought he would catch Pretty Perfect, who had quickened clear of the field in the home straight and looked the likely winner.

“I was confident that I might pick the filly, but when they are trained by Aidan O’Brien they tend to get to the line pretty well,” he added. “That filly had decent form and was a guaranteed stayer so you can never be that sure that you will peg her back.”

As for the aforementioned Rich Legacy, the two-year-old could be a star of the future as she was given a quote of 33-1 for next year’s 1000 Guineas and described by some as an Oaks contender. “Ralph said she would win and he was right. She loved every yard of the trip and you’d say she’d get further in time. Whether she would be an Oaks filly, I’m not sure,” added the rider before flying off to Chelmsford for last night’s meeting.

There was also a double on the day for Skipton-born and Newmarket-based trainer William Haggas, whose Glitter Girl was an aptly-named winner of the Ladies Day opener before Mubtasim took the Weatherbys Hamilton £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes under Pat Cosgrave.

Newmarket’s Group One Middle Park Stakes could be a target on September 24 after the winner atoned for a lacklustre run in York’s Gimcrack Stakes last month.

“I hope we can return to Group company but we will wait and see with him,” said the trainer. “I don’t why he misfired (Gimcrack) but he has made up for it today.”

North Yorkshire trainer David Barron’s Handsome Dude won the finale but this will long be remembered as Oisin Murphy’s day – and with very good reason.