Racing: Owington knocks Lochsong for six: The rising sprint champion hits a high note but an off-key queen of speed loses her pitch

OWINGTON won the July Cup here yesterday from Dolphin Street and Catrail, but the most salient feature of the race was the performance of another horse. Lochsong lost, and lost badly.

The tired mare crossed the line in eighth, leaving behind her just one animal and the aspirations of an audience who had expected her to sprint to new heights. It was the first time in 23 starts that she had not collected any prize money.

Paul Eddery was in the money, but will soon be out of it. Thirty minutes after steering Owington in, he was found guilty of careless riding in the Bunbury Cup and punishment at Portman Square awaits.

Lochsong's demise on her step back up to six furlongs may have had its roots in events before flag fall. A serene figure in the preliminaries, she became a dancing, adrenalin-filled creature as soon as she caught sight of the race-track. 'She was rearing and messing around and I told the boys (the handlers) to let her go,' Willie Carson, the mare's jockey, reported.

Carson had meant to complete the sentence with 'in a second', but an immediate release caught him unawares and Lochsong was on her way with the reins unattended. This was the only point in the afternoon when she looked like the free- wheeling mare that has become imprinted in our minds over the least two years.

In the race proper, the six- year-old made her customary brisk start, but she then appeared shackled, dragging the field along like a prisoner pulling a ball and chain. 'It's very simple,' Carson said. 'She doesn't get the six.'

This, however, was simplistic. Lochsong was collared 300 yards out by Barathea and at the furlong pole she was third and dropping back. Ian Balding, her trainer, had the shocked look of a man returning from a battlefield with ringing in his ears as he assessed the run. 'She wouldn't have won at five, would she?' he said. 'I just don't know. She seemed to run flat.'

When big races come along the rumour mill starts operating. Thus, in Newmarket this week, you could have heard that Lanfranco Dettori could have ridden Lochsong but preferred Catrail, Owington's stable was in an incubation period and that Michael Kinane had told his taxi driver that Barathea would not win. For once, all three were right.

Geoff Wragg, Owington's trainer, told of how some of his horses were running temperatures but that this colt had not been affected. The three-year-old will now go on a European victory tour, taking in Deauville and Baden- Baden. Owington will be kept in training next year, when Wragg promises he will be an even more potent competitor.

This is a worrying prospect for others as the colt is top grade now. He gave the whole field a start yesterday, surged his way round the outside by the furlong pole and still had time to wait for the others in the closing stages. 'I got there to do him,' Cash Asmussen, who piloted Dolphin Street up the inside rail in the final furlong, said. 'But the bastard was just idling and he pulled out a bit more.'

Luca Cumani, whose Barathea finished fourth, revealed his runner would now go to the Sussex Stakes back over a mile, but did not rule out a return to sprint distances.

On a day when the general feeling was of disappointment, the most fluctuating fortunes belonged to Paul Eddery. Following the biggest win of his career, the 30-year-old got himself into a dreadful tangle on Celestial Key and was deemed to be guilty of careless riding.

As this was his third such offence of the season he will be sent for punishment at Jockey Club headquarters.

Results, page 35

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