As with today’s renewal, the G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes may not attract a large number of runners but the race always draws a top-class field of outstanding talent.
The 2007 race was no exception. The six runners had won no fewer than nine G1s between them prior to the race, and by the time the sextet were all retired they would have amassed a grand total of 18 top-level victories around the world between them. The contestants included Dylan Thomas who had a hat-trick of G1 victories to his name including the Irish Derby, and would go on to land the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Joining him in the line-up was the subsequent Eclipse Stakes winner Notnowcato, the previous year’s Epsom Derby hero Sir Percy, the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Red Rocks, and Pressing, who would go on to land G1 races in Italy and Germany.
And then there was Manduro. The German-bred son of Monsun, trained by Peter Schiergen, became a rare juvenile Group winner in his native Germany when winning a G3 at Cologne. Lightly raced at three, Manduro was transferred to the care of Andre Fabre prior to his four-year-old season, and quickly made up for lost time. Finishing in the first three in no fewer than five G1 races at four, Manduro proved himself as a teak-tough talented performer.
His roll-call of near-misses included a close-up third in the G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes where he finished behind the great mare Ouija Board and Godolphin’s Electrocutionist after being held against the rail for most of his run.
That elusive first G1 victory arrived on Manduro’s second run as a four-year-old. Having spread-eagled the field in the G3 Earl Of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket’s Craven meeting when setting a new course record for nine furlongs, he stormed to a five-length victory in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp, a race in which he had been beaten by a short neck 12 months earlier.
The scene was set for a second raid on the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. Physically imposing in the paddock beforehand, in the race itself Manduro was settled to stalk the pace in third place behind Sir Percy and Notnowcato. Two furlongs from home, Stephane Pasquier pushed the button and Manduro swept to the lead where he was quickly joined by Dylan Thomas.
A battle royal may have been expected but in the event it took little encouragement from Pasquier for Manduro to sweep aside his younger rival and sweep to victory by a length and a quarter.
