Murtagh sees Master improvement
Tuesday, 29 July 2008Johnny Murtagh believes impressive Phoenix Stakes winner Mastercraftsman can only get better.
Aidan O'Brien's new potential superstar shot to the head of next year's 2000 Guineas betting with a thrilling display on Sunday, easily brushing aside Coventry Stakes winner Art Connoisseur.
'He's a huge two-year-old. At halfway I was rowing him along but he's a long-striding horse with a good engine,' Murtagh told Channel 4 Racing.
'He's a huge horse, he's probably developed into his size now but I'd say he's a serious horse. To win a Group One by four and a half lengths from Michael Bell's horse, who they thought an awful lot of, was something else but he really stretched on a furlong out.
'He's a very good horse but he can only get better. It was a true-run race, everyone got a fair crack of the whip. Our lad will probably get seven in time so we thought that with his stride we'd just let him flow, use that rhythm and he had them in trouble a long way out.'
