2YO Task Force claims his first blacktype win

Two-year-old Frankel colt Task Force posted his first stakes success on Monday (28th August) winning the Listed Ripon Champion Two Year Old Trophy Stakes.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 29th August 2023:

Earning TDN Rising Star status on debut at Salisbury last month, Task Force passed his second career test in yesterday's Listed Ripon Champion Two Year Old Trophy to suggest he can take higher rank among the season's juveniles.

Settled behind the leaders by Rossa Ryan early, the Ralph Beckett-trained 11-8 favourite made his move wide to tackle his rail-running stablemate Matters Most inside the final furlong before asserting for a  one and a quarter-length success.

"The idea of going to Ripon was to teach him a bit, as he didn't learn much the first day - he hit the gates well and sat handy and was left in front a furlong and a half down, so he probably didn't learn a lot about racing," Juddmonte's racing manager Barry Mahon said. "He'll have learned plenty there today. You saw how green he was in the early part there and when Rossa asked him to go he was green, but when the penny dropped away he went. It was a nice performance and he could a nice horse."

Mahon floated the idea of Task Force moving up in trip: "I haven't spoken to Ralph yet and we need to let the dust settle, but I've no doubt seven is going to be right up his street. He's bred to be a miler in time, so seven furlongs won't be a problem but whether Ralph decides to go that way now or later on we'll wait and see. Part of the reason we went back over six furlongs today was because when you look up his mother's record she never raced beyond six at two and ended up being a dual Guineas winner at three, so there's no shortage of speed in the pedigree and he showed that today against some hardened two-year-olds."

Task Force's dam Special Duty captured the six-furlong Gr.1 Cheveley Park Stakes and five and a half-furlong Gr.2 Prix Robert Papin at two and was second in the Gr.1 Prix Morny before her extraordinary Classic campaign which saw her twice promoted from second to first after inquiries in the Gr.1 1000 Guineas and Gr.1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. Her finest performer to date is the Listed scorer Elegant Verse, while she also produced the Listed Prix Yacowlef runner-up South Bank.