Three years after Holloway Boy won the Listed Chesham Stakes on debut, his full-brother Humidity added his name to the roll of honour with a game performance.
Purchased by Wathnan Racing after scoring on debut at Newbury, Andrew Balding’s son of Ulysses set even fractions under James Doyle before increasing the tempo approaching the final two furlongs.
Thesecretadversary (12/1) threatened late on, but Humidity pulled out more to score by a length, with Moments Of Joy (10/3) another length and a quarter away in third.
Balding said: “This is the horse that we had the highest hopes for this week, so I am delighted he has got the job done. He is just a lovely horse to have in the yard.
“He had to battle hard today. He has done nothing wrong and I would hope that he will stay further, but he is not short of speed either. He is so laidback.
“I am a big fan of Ulysses. I think he is an underrated stallion, so this is good for him. We have a couple of other nice horses by him, and Humidity is an absolute dude.
“This was always the plan and we will now work back from something nice in the autumn. I think he could be a Guineas horse. He is not short of speed and has a lovely long stride. I think he has a bright future.”
Doyle said: “I remember that, when it was spoken about that this fella was on the radar, I texted Oisin, ‘what’s Humidity like?’ and he just texted me the rocket emoji back, so I was a bit excited when he said that!
“Humidity has a beautiful pedigree – his full-brother won this three years ago, so he was bred to do today’s job, but he feels like he will keep improving. He has a beautiful action. I said to Andrew that I perhaps went a click too slow, because when they started to quicken, he took three or four strides to stretch. Then once he started stretching, he was away, so I will bear that in mind for the future.
“He is very genuine. He has speed, but he is not a sit and sprint job. It is more that he gets in that rhythm and keeps floating. I think he will stay a mile.”
Richard Brown of Wathnan said: “I would just like to say huge congratulations to Mrs Thompson, Cheveley Park Stud and Chris Richardson, because they bred this horse. They sell a lot of their colts as yearlings, so we thought it was worth an approach and luckily they agreed to sell Humidity to us.
“That was a huge thrill. I thought James gave him an absolute peach from the front, and Andrew and his team have done a great job. He walked round here like an old pro. His brother won here three years ago first time out and has been very consistent over the past three seasons, a thoroughly admirable horse.
“You can never be confident coming to Ascot. We have had plenty of turnarounds but we are obviously very fortunate. This is our fourth winner of the week, which is absolutely tremendous, but you don’t come here confident. We just thought Humidity would run a really nice race.
“It was early in the piece I said to Olly [Tait], when the expansion was going to happen, that getting a world class jockey on our side is very important. We were lucky to be able to secure James Doyle. He is riding with great confidence. He is a top man and a big part of our team.”
Fozzy Stack said of the runner-up: “Thesecretadversary ran a great race. He has been very straightforward. He has always looked a bit above average from the minute we started doing a bit with him. I know he is quite colourful, but he is actually a very good model.
“Seamie was delighted with him. He said he has the pace of a good horse and feels he will mature in time. We have all the options. We can run him back in a maiden or keep pitching in at a higher level. We will see.”
Seamie Heffernan added: “A lovely horse. We have four or five St Mark’s Basilicas in Fozzy’s, and I would say they are above average. It was a nice run.”