Mount Athos sees off Panther

Melbourne Cup next for star stayer

Last updated: 18th August 2012   Subscribe to RSS Feed

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Mount Athos

Mount Athos: Well backed winner

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Mount Athos was a comfortable winner of the Betfred 'The Bonus King' Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury on Saturday.

Luca Cumani's improving five-year-old looks set to go for the Melbourne Cup after he registered his third successive win this season.

Settled off the gallop set by Masked Marvel's pacemaker Dartford, Ryan Moore bided his time before making his challenge inside the final two furlongs.

As Masked Marvel faded on the inside it was left to Brown Panther to push Mount Athos the hardest, but the Dr Marwan Koukash-owned horse pulled out more.

Backed from as big as 9-4 in the morning, Mount Athos went off a very well backed 5-4 favourite.

Moore said: "It was a tough race - they went off quite hard and I wanted to get cover on this horse.

"We were racing a long way out and it happened nice enough in the end, but I was there a little bit early.''

Cumani told Racing UK: "He looks like the best I've taken down, but you need a better horse these days. Gone are the days when you take an Ebor Handicap type horse.

"It's like a proper Group One race now with the weights pushed up so much.

"He's as good a chance as I've ever had."

Sky Bet go 10-1 about Mount Athos for the Melbourne Cup.