Oasis Dream smokes Nunthorpe

Oasis Dream set York ablaze on Thursday with an overpowering triumph in the five-furlong Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes.

The speed and superiority of his victory was such that it prompted trainer John Gosden to announce that Oasis Dream's ultimate goal this season would be the Breeders' Cup. But the race Gosden has chosen for Khalid Abdullah's 3-year-old son of Green Desert is not the Sprint, but the Mile.

Gosden, who trained Royal Heroine to win the first Breeders' Cup Mile, said, "Even though this horse is as fast as anything I've had - I've gotten him in 34.10 for three furlongs at home breezing on the gallops - the Sprint is not his race. Oasis Dream is a European turf horse."

Ridden by Richard Hughes, Oasis Dream, the odds-on favorite, covered the five furlongs at York in 56.20 seconds, just .04 seconds off Dayjur's track record. He was cruising at the end in defeating recent Group 3 winner The Tatling by 2 1/2 lengths.

Oasis Dream's Nunthorpe victory adds to his July Cup tally over Choisir and his European juvenile championship. His next race will be the six-furlong Haydock Park Sprint Cup, after which he will move into the more challenging realm of international milers.