Impressive four-year-old OMBUDSMAN (Night Of Thunder), who hails from the same family as Klawervlei Stud’s four time G1 winning sire TWICE OVER (Observatory), showed his class when he won the G1 Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday.
In landing the York showpiece, Ombudsman emulated Twice Over, with the latter victorious in the G1 Juddmonte International of 2011.
The 7-4 favourite was ridden by William Buick for John and Thady Gosden, with the fellow Godolphin-owned runner BIRR CASTLE (Cloth Of Stars) sent out to make the running as a rank outsider in the field of six. The latter horse was afforded an enormous lead and as he rounded the turn for home it looked quite possible that the chasing pack would not catch him, but as he tired, Ombudsman was gaining ground.
He eventually swept through to grab the lead and while Delacroix also made late gains, Ombudsman emerged a three-and-a-half-length winner.
Victorious in this year’s G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Ombudsman was claiming the second Group One victory of his eight-race career to date, with John Gosden’s sights already set on more top-level success.
He added: “He had a little problem as a baby and we never raced him at two and he came along gradually. He’s getting better and better, has trained well and was unbeaten last year. His only defeat this year was in the muddling Eclipse and he’s a proper horse.
The two obvious races for him are the Irish Champion and Ascot for Champions Day. It will be Sheikh Mohammed’s decision if he stays in training but he is a sportsman.”
Ombudsman, winner of six of just eight starts, is out of SYNDICATE (Dansili). The latter’s fourth dam LOST VIRTUE (Cloudy Dawn) also ranks as the third dam of Twice Over.
Twice Over has seven lots on offer at the 2025 August Two Year Old Sale, including a colt (Lot 151) out of G2 winner MAGIC SMOKE (Fort Wood), and a three-parts sister (Lot 260) to G2 Senor Santa Stakes winner SMORGASBORD (Twice Over).
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