Saturday 4 July 2020 15:10, UK
Safe Voyage took a while to hit his stride in the Investec Surrey Stakes - but eventually did so in style to emerge on top in the Listed prize.
Trained by John Quinn and ridden by Jason Hart, Safe Voyage was sent off the 6-5 favourite on the back of a fine reappearance effort, but it was Shine So Bright who seized the early initiative.
Silvestre de Sousa let the grey stride on and with a couple of furlongs to run it looked as though his front-running tactics would pay dividends.
However, Shine So Bright was floundering with a furlong to run, allowing Safe Voyage to sweep down the outside and give Quinn his 1,000th career winner by a length and a half, in a track-record time.
Hart said: "That was John's 1,000th winner, so it's nice to do it on a big day with a horse he has a good rapport with.
"The horse is very consistent and the boss has done a great job with him."
Speaking from home, Quinn said: "We'd have loved to have been at Epsom, but we weren't sure what all the protocols were going to be and myself and Sue (wife) just decided to watch it at home - we're there in spirit!
"He did it well in the end and he's broken the track record, which is unbelievable. They've gone very hard in front and didn't stop, but he's picked up well and we're delighted.
"It was a new track for him and the ground was acceptable, but probably not ideal. We know he likes soft ground, but he's handled it well.
"There is a race at Ascot next Saturday for him and we'll see how he is, but we're probably more likely to wait for the Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh (July 18)."
On reaching the 1,000-winner milestone, the trainer added: "It's great to get there, finally. I think we've been training 25 years and in my first year we had two winners, in the second year we had one winner and in the third year we had four, so it was a slow burner!
"We've been lucky to have some very good horses over the past 10 or 12 years and we're fortunate to have some very good owners and some very good staff, so a big thanks to all of them."
