Mawj lands overdue victory for Murphy and Saeed bin Suroor in 1,000 Guineas

“I’m just super-relieved, really,” Oisin Murphy said after winning the 1,000 Guineas on Mawj here on Sunday. For slightly different reasons, the winning trainer’s primary emotion was probably much the same.

Murphy, Flat racing’s champion jockey for three seasons running until 2021, is finding his way back to the top of the sport after a 14-month ban ruled him out in 2022. Saeed bin Suroor, by contrast, is a former champion who has never been away, but has effectively been forced to watch from the sidelines in recent years as Charlie Appleby, who also trains exclusively for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, has turned out one champion after another.

Suroor even took temporary charge of Appleby’s Moulton Paddocks training complex a decade ago when the previous occupant, Mahmood al-Zarooni, was banned for his role in a steroid-doping scandal. But while Appleby, al-Zarooni’s former assistant, has won four British Classics since taking over the licence in 2013, Mawj was Suroor’s first since Mastery took the St Leger in 2009.

“Me and Charlie are a good team,” Suroor said, “and he was with me for a long time before becoming the best trainer now. We’re good friends and have the best horses in the country, maybe even the world in our stables. We will sometimes have luck like with Mawj today, she’s a nice filly.”

For much of the way on Sunday, and even as Mawj passed the furlong-pole with a narrow lead, it seemed more likely that Suroor’s Classic drought would continue. The field split soon after the start, with Mawj and Murphy travelling easily at the head of the stands-side group, but a quarter of a mile out, Tahiyra, the 6-4 favourite, eased towards them and then almost alongside.

Chris Hayes, on Tahiyra, was apparently