Audience, stablemate of Inspiral, scores front-running upset in Lockinge
If you had been told early Saturday morning that a 5-year-old trained by John and Thady Gosden had won the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse, you would not have been surprised. The Gosdens, after all, had the star mare Inspiral entered in the Lockinge for her 5-year-old debut. Inspiral did not win, did not even come close, but the Gosdens did, as Audience, a 5-year-old gelding presumed to be a pacemaker for his heralded stablemate, went to the lead and never came back, capturing this straight-course mile by 1 3/4 lengths while posting a 20-1 upset.
Charyn, already a two-time winner in 2024 and the third choice at 7-2, was the only one close to Audience at the end, gaining only slightly on the leader through the final furlong as the rest of the field faded into the distance. Witch Hunter, a 29-1 shot, finished third, 6 1/2 lengths behind Charyn and 4 1/2 in front of fourth-place Inspiral, who made mild progress from the rear of the field before flattening out the final 200 yards. Favored Big Rock tracked the pacesetter from second but was finished with more than a quarter-mile to run, checking in sixth.
Robert Havlin rode the winner, a 5-year-old gelding who surely ran the race of his life in his 13th start, his first going a mile, and his first at the Group 1 level. Like Inspiral, Audience is owned by the Cheveley Park Stud and had hit a high-water mark last August at York finishing a close second to Kinross in the seven-furlong City of York Stakes. By Iffraaj out of Ladyship, by Oasis Dream, Audience raced for the first time since October, back from a winter break a faster horse than he’d gone into it.
Inspiral, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November, began her 2023 campaign slowly, too, finishing second and fifth before getting her feet fully beneath her. Saturday at Newbury, it was her little-known barn mate, Audience, who ran everyone off their feet.
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