Pogo is Breeders’ Cup-bound after rising to Newmarket challenge

Pogo went one better than 12 months ago when holding off Sacred in the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards Challenge Stakes at Newmarket to tee up a crack at the Breeders’ Cup.

Ridden by soon-to-be-crowned champion jockey William Buick, partnering his 150th winner of the season, the Charlie Hills-trained six-year-old was winning for the eighth time.

Better than ever, Pogo (7-4) had already won two Group Threes and chased home impressive Prix de la Foret winner Kinross in the City of York Stakes last time out.

Allowed to bowl along in front, he had Misty Grey for company before the race developed in earnest.

Tom Marquand decided to drop Sacred out in the rear and when she began to make her move going into the dip, it looked likely to be decisive.

Sacred began to drift right on the meeting the rising ground, though, and with the rail to help, Pogo ran out a comfortable length-and-a-quarter winner.

Hills said: “He’s such a star of a horse, he really is. He’s been to most battles this year and has very rarely come up short.

“Everything looked good today – he had a nice draw on the rail. The plan was to make the running and it worked out well.

“He’s a really tough boy. If everything horse was like him it would be very easy.

“He has a great cruising speed and he’s aggressive. Even as a yearling he was quite hard to break in – he spent most of his time on two legs! He’s always liked plenty of graft and loves racing.”

He added: “I think we’ll look towards America and the Breeders’ Cup. He’s got good gate speed. We ran him in Saudi Arabia in the sprint and he made the running there, which takes some doing against sprinters.”