Dane O’Neill took Johhny Murtagh’s place on the Richard Hannon-trained Tacitus and nearly made it a dream spare ride as the colt finished strongly to go down by just half a length to stable companion Mister Links in the TNT July Stakes at Newmarket.
Hannon almost made it a clean sweep of the places as his Tizzy May was badly boxed in on the inside rail yet still came home a close fifth.
‘‘Tizzy May was a bit unlucky, I thought - he didn’t get a gap and then he nearly got knocked over,’’ the trainer said.
‘‘It is shame they all had to go in the same race as they are three good horses but they belong to three different people and if they want to take their chance you have got to let everybody run.
‘‘If I could change it I would do I promise you - I would rather earn three ten per cents than one!’’
Newmarket 2.50 Final Result
1 Mister Links R Hughes 2-1 Fav
2 Tacitus D O’Neill 7-1
3 The Bonus King K Dalgleish 10-3