Mission complete in the Doncaster Cup for Balding and Buick

William Buick sealed a double on the day at Doncaster as Spanish Mission impressively took the Group 2 bet365 Doncaster Cup.

Class horse! ?

SPANISH MISSION shows a lovely turn of foot to win the Bet365 Doncaster Cup!!

A trip to #ChampionsDay for the Long Distance Cup could be next! pic.twitter.com/Wbi9HbNrCb

— Champions Series (@ChampionsSeries) September 11, 2020

The favourite was always travelling comfortably in behind pacesetters The Grand Visir and Celino in the early exchanges. The pace was steady throughout with the field strung out in single file; the heavily backed Revolver sitting in last position under Luke Morris.

It wasn’t until the turn for the home that the race began to get interesting. Long time leader The Grand Visir’s effort petered out quickly and it was left to Celino to take up the running with three furlongs left to run.

That run was covered by William Buick and Spanish Mission; a brief bit of encouragement from the pilot saw Andrew Balding’s charge comfortably head Celino. He then began to assert his advantage and by the final furlong the race was all but won. Celino kept on gamely to finish 2nd under Cieron Fallon jnr.

A trip to QIPCO British Champions Day could now be on the horizon for the winner with the QIPCO Long Distance Cup a very realistic target.