Postponed extends winning streak in Coronation Cup

Postponed won his sixth straight race Saturday at Epsom Downs, adding the Group 1 Coronation Cup to top-level victories in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes last summer and the Sheema Classic in March and padding an increasingly gaudy résumé.

Postponed got a great trip sitting third behind a slow tempo laid down by his pacemaker, Roseburg, and despite racing a little keenly in the early stages, he made the most of it. Even after easing up to the lead after rounding Tattenham Corner into the long home straight, jockey Andrea Atzeni waited and waited to pull the trigger, and when he asked, Postponed gave plenty. He easily opened a wide advantage over the chasing Found and ran out a 4 1/2-length winner in the 1 1/2-mile race worth about $330,000.

Found ran well in defeat, and while no match for Postponed, she had the tougher trip, rallying from midpack into an ever-quickening pace the last three furlongs or thereabouts. Roseburg held third, 1 1/4 lengths in front of Simple Verse, the latter also negatively impacted by the pace, and the former’s high placing demonstrating just how greatly it benefitted the forwardly placed Postponed.

Yet despite the favorable circumstances, Postponed was very impressive. He looked like a winner a half-mile out and quickened under no pressure whatsoever before making his final decisive bid. He won over good-to-soft ground on Epsom’s unique, undulating course after running just as well over good going around an American-style oval at Meydan in the $6 million Sheema Classic.

Luca Cumani trained Postponed until last fall, when owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al Maktoum unexpectedly moved his horses into the yard of trainer Roger Varian. Postponed, a 5-year-old by Dubawi out of the Dubai Destination mare Ever Rigg, is likely to have as his next start a defense of his King George win in July at Ascot, and the manner of his win Saturday has propelled him to the head of the antepost market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He’s won half of his 16 starts and has earned about $5.5 million.

Found, the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner last fall, could race next in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in less than two weeks, trainer Aidan O’Brien said. Simple Verse, a two-time Group 1 winner last year at 3, also was disadvantaged by the race flow and finished a solid-enough fourth. She could start at Royal Ascot and is a possible rival again for Postponed in the King George.