Bahrain Trophy: Castle Way firmly in Leger picture

Full replay: Castle WayBahrain Trophy

Additional quotes via Graham Clark and Nick Seddon

Castle Way emerged as a serious St Leger prospect as he held off the late lunge of odds-on favourite Tower Of London to land the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket.

Not seen since winning a Listed race over 10 furlongs at the Guineas meeting, Palace Pier’s half-brother was stepping up markedly in trip to a mile and five furlongs.

William Buick sat in second on the Charlie Appleby-trained inner, as rank outsider Think First set a sedate gallop under Neil Callan, meaning several in behind were very keen.

Tower Of London was particularly not one of those, but while it did look like he wanted to go a little quicker, Ryan Moore was still sat close enough to the pace if good enough.

As the race began in earnest Saint George moved up on his outside which allowed Castle Way to steal a march.

"We'll look towards the Voltigeur," Appleby tells Lydia Hislop

When Think First dropped away Tower Of London was in the clear with plenty of time to catch the 9-2 scorer, but Moore lost his stick over a furlong from home, which will not have helped.

The favourite was gaining with every stride, but went down by a head with Saint George not far away in third.

Castle Way was cut to 7-1 from 25s by Paddy Power for the Leger, and Doncaster will be on the agenda, according to Appleby.

Appleby said: “We’re delighted. He’s a horse who hasn’t done a lot wrong in his career, really. His only real blip was at Epsom on soft ground.

“We came in here today confident this step up in trip would suit him. There was a question mark, as there always is when you are going beyond that mile-and-a-half category.

This relative speed test at the extended trip suited Castle Way, Buick tells Lydia Hislop

“It was a great ride by William. We went out there to ride him as though the trip wasn’t an issue and as William said, for a trip just short of a mile and six, we went very steady. It did turn turn into a bit of a sprint. At one stage I thought, ‘oh, we’ve committed now and you’ll have to find again’, but to be fair to the horse, he dug deep.”

Asked if he was thinking of the Leger in the long term, Appleby added: “Most definitely. We will probably go down the natural route there to the Voltigeur and then hopefully that will springboard us into being a St Leger contender, anyway.

“We haven’t had a run since May. For no other reason that I dodged Ascot for King Of Steel to be perfectly honest – I couldn’t see us beating him – and then the next target was here.

“We kept an eye on the Grand Prix de Paris, but we would have to ship there and he hasn’t done that before, and it is a small but competitive race. On our doorstep, we thought we would come here and test our stamina before we go travelling.”

Appleby on his three-year-old brigade

“I think other people can answer for me (whether his three year olds are as strong as other years), but that’s just the way it is. In the spring we had people thinking that we weren’t firing on all cylinders, I was confident that what we were doing at home was right and all the horses were fit and well. We didn’t have that Guineas kind of horse like we’ve had in the years before and they’ve been more slow burners.

“You’d love to have that year in and year out but I’m sure people would find that quite boring! We didn’t have the winner of the Futurity or the Fillies’ Mile last year, so the clues were there.”

Future hopes intact for Tower Of London

Kevin Buckley, Coolmore’s UK representative, said of the runner-up Tower Of London: “He is clearly an improving horse, and he has run a nice race there. That performance shouldn’t deter from the future plans we have for him. He is a full-brother to Capri, who was an improving horse. He is a nice looking horse and Galileo’s have a special will to win. Hopefully, there will be big days for him in the future.”

A further two and quarter lengths back in third was Saint George (9-2) and his trainer Andrew Balding said: “He ran very well but his future now lies in Australia. If we had won today, they would have been tempted to keep him here for the St Leger, however he has been purchased with a view to run in Australia."