Thunder Snow edged out in Champagne Stakes

Thunder Snow continued Godolphin’s sequence of near misses at Doncaster’s St Leger Festival when going down by a head in the seven-furlong G2 At The Races Champagne Stakes on Saturday, September 10.

The Saeed bin Suroor-trained two-year-old, who was also runner-up in the G2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood on his previous start, broke smartly and soon raced in a close second behind Majeste, who set a slow early pace for the six-strong field.

Thunder Snow moved up to take the lead for James Doyle just over two furlongs out and was challenged by Rivet in the final furlong.

The Helmet colt ran on strongly but was headed by Rivet with 100 yards remaining and rallied to go down by a head at the line, with the winner scoring in 1m 26.63s on ground described as good, good to firm in places.

The first two finished five lengths ahead of Godolphin’s other runner in the contest, D’bai (Charlie Appleby/William Buick), who shaped encouragingly on his Pattern debut to snatch third.

Saeed bin Suroor said: "I’m pleased with Thunder Snow’s run. I’m happy with how he finished his race and he saw out the trip well. He has come second in a G2 which is a good result.

"This horse will certainly improve in the future. He may have needed this race after coming off a break of 45 days so he will improve for the race.

"There are no definite plans at the moment for him. He may go for the Dewhurst (G1, 7f, Newmarket, October 8)."

Charlie Appleby was pleased with the performance of D’bai: "He is a horse officially on ratings who had a lot to find and the first two are very smart.

"He is a Dubawi and he has more of a profile to be a three-year-old. He has lost nothing in what he has done there today - he’s been placed in a Group Two.

"I’m happy enough with that. We will put him away for the winter now and we’ll see him as a potential Listed and Group Three type of horse next year when he strengthens up again."