Racing: Attraction displays her beauty with dazzling win

Newmarket July Meeting: Despite a difficult start Mark Johnston's filly still manages to confirm her status as a truly exceptional juvenile

Her legs were so deformed they did not take Attraction to the sales. The reaction would have been rather similar to when the curtain was pulled back on John Merrick.

Yet Attraction is no elephant. Her front limbs may be hideously crooked but they still manage to move with great rapidity, certainly far too swiftly for her seven opponents in the Cherry Hinton Stakes here yesterday. It was a sweaty day before she did this to them.

"She came to me with a brief of winning a race, then with the aim of getting black type [for a Pattern race win]," Mark Johnston, the trainer, said. "She's gone from that to becoming certainly the best two-year-old I've ever trained and perhaps the best two-year-old most people have ever trained. She's a bit of a machine. A bit of a freak." In more ways than one.

It was, strangely enough, Attraction's most impressive victory after the most unfortunate of starts. Beforehand she was dominant in both the betting market and the parade ring, a huge pen-like figure leading round a line of cygnets.

Yet, as the stalls opened, it all went wrong. Attraction misjudged the break and was immediately baulked by Crafty Fancy. For the first time in her life on the racecourse, all she could see was bottoms in front.

The odds-on favourite swished her tail at this ignominy and quickly closed up behind the front rank, seemingly with the intention of running right over the top of them. This should have added up to doom. Then, though, she relaxed.

"The horse on my right jumped across me and I had to snatch for a stride, which put her in behind," Kevin Darley, the jockey, reported. "I was in a bit of a predicament. But she switched off.

"I saw Kieren [Fallon, on Birthday Suit] hanging off the fence and I thought I had to go there. That was my route. And once I put her head in there she was gone in two strides."

Attraction sprawled slightly as she challenged over a furlong out, but she sprawled quickly. It was an almost embarrassing explosion of legs, but then all the discomfiture belong to the others. Either they were running slowly or something else happened. In a twinkling, Attraction was five lengths clear.

It was a day of much palpitation for Mark Johnston. The Middleham trainer rarely feels distress, never shows it, but here was a filly to make mountains on his cardiograph. He was disturbed by the anticipation, the manner of her victory and, finally, the options created by Attraction's first success over six furlongs.

"I haven't felt so much pressure for a long time," Johnston said. "I've had lots of good horses, such as Mister Baileys, and gone to the races knowing that we had been underestimated and had a great chance. This is the first time I've gone to a Group Two race and known that only winning, and winning well, would be good enough.

"[In the race] she was locked up and she was pulling for a bit, which was the last thing we wanted. She dropped back a length and I thought she might have shot her bolt even at that stage. That was Plan C. The idea had been for her to ping out and run her own race. We did not imagine there would be a wall in front of her. We never imagined she would be boxed in. We never imagined she could have won that way and it opens up so many possibilities.

"We were looking at the Nunthorpe and the Prix Robert Papin because of the five furlongs and Group One status. Now there are numerous alternatives. She'll be entered in the Lowther as well as the Nunthorpe. We're trying to make hay while the sun's shining, but, at the same time, you couldn't rule out next year."

The primary question is whether Attraction can stretch this brilliance to the mile of next spring's 1,000 Guineas. You can get 12-1 about that prospect.

There was a showcase for the old stagers too when Millenary and Pat Eddery swept from last to first in the Princess of Wales's Stakes. The six-year-old, who also won this last year, might now take in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, especially as the Classic generation appears so shoddy. High Accolade, their representative yesterday, was last.

"He's a good, honest, consistent, older horse and the older horses are better this year," Eddery said. "The three-year-olds are not what they might be. Obviously not. Tell me a three-year-old that's been impressive this year. I can't think of one."

The outstanding juvenile thus far this season is not so difficult to identify. On this evidence, Attraction's story will run and run. On wonky legs.

RACING IN BRIEF: CASUAL LOOK AND YESTERDAY TO RENEW RIVALRY AT THE CURRAGH

Casual Look and Yesterday, who fought out the Oaks finish at Epsom, are to have a rematch in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh on Sunday. Andrew Balding's Casual Look is one of five British fillies among 14 left in the race. John Gosden sends High Praise and Ocean Silk, while Michael Stoute's Spanish Sun and James Toller's Hanami complete the party. Yesterday is 2-1 favourite with Cashmans and Paddy Power. Casual Look is 4-1 with Cashmans.

The Australian speedster Choisir has the plum No 1 stall as he attempts to complete a hat-trick of British wins tomorrow. The colt will face 17 rivals in the July Cup as he attempts to follow up his stunning wins at Royal Ascot.

The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide has had his first work since his Belmont Stakes defeat. The colt is expected to make his return in the Haskell Invitational Handicap at Monmouth Park on 3 August.