Docklands breezes to Doncaster Mile win

Docklands justified odds-on favouritism as he ran out a comfortable winner of the William Hill Doncaster Mile Stakes.

Volterra laid down the pace early on and he set an even gallop as Jamie Spencer on the 8-11 favourite stalked at the rear.

With a Group One win last season at Royal Ascot under his belt Docklands looked the class act and so it proved.

Once Spencer asked, Harry Eustace’s stable star asserted himself and showed his usual willing attitude to come home one and a half lengths clear.

“I’m delighted, but I can’t really say I enjoyed watching a lot of that!” said Eustace.

“When you drop a horse like that in a Listed race without a penalty, then on form figures the assumption is that he wins well.

“He did win it well, his consistency is really something that is just a credit to him every time.

“We’re here today with a lot of better horses because of him, he’s been such a star.

“He’s the flag bearer of our early years and he’s only six, so we’ve got this year with him at least but he’ll be a hard horse to replace.

“He’ll now go to Hong Kong at the end of April, he ran very well there last year. He’ll go to Ascot and then we’ll have to come up with a plan when we see how he is after that.”