Trillium pips The Platinum Queen in exciting Childers battle

Hannon runner edges favourite at Doncaster.

Trillium just edged The Platinum Queen in a thrilling renewal of the Coral Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster.

Runner-up in the Nunthorpe Stakes, The Platinum Queen was quickly into her stride in the Group Two contest and blazed a trail under Oisin Orr.

Richard Hannon’s Trillium (2-1) took more of a watching brief, but the big two joined battle at the business end and it was right on the line that Pat Dobbs’ mount got up to foil the Richard Fahey-trained 7-4 market leader, with the pair well clear of the rest.

Dobbs said: “I couldn’t pull her up, she wanted to go round again.

“Sam Hitchcott has been riding her these past couple of weeks and he’s done a great job in getting her settled.

“Richard just keeps her sweet at home, she trains herself. She’s very quick and very tough so that is everything you want.

“She actually travelled too well and never relaxed properly so it’s probably a better performance than it looks.”

Tom Palin of Middleham Park Racing, owners of The Platinum Queen, said: “When it’s such a narrow margin it’s not nice to be on the wrong end of it, but she’s run a blinder and I think they’re two very nice fillies.

“I’d love to have another crack at her (Trillium). If we ran it again I’d like to think we could do things a little bit differently, just get her to relax a little bit more on the front end.

“If Trillium wasn’t in the race she’d have been a good winner and we’d have been waxing lyrical.

“There’s no immediate plans. We’re in the Cheveley Park in a couple of weeks’ time. Whether we want to go up to six furlongs or not, we’ll have to have a think about it.

“We’re in the Abbaye and that’s probably something we’ll have a look at if the ground isn’t too soft. She coped with that ground today, but on better ground she can bounce off it and she might have got away further and Trillium would have had a bigger margin to bridge.

“There is the Cornwallis at the backend of the year as well and there’s also America (Breeders’ Cup), so we just need to think about where we want to pitch her in next time.”

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