Mozart's crescendo exhilarates Kinane

Ten minutes after he had climbed off Mozart in the winner's enclosure at Newmarket yesterday, Mick Kinane's face was still flushed with the sheer exhilaration of having just hurtled down six furlongs of the July course in a shade under 70 seconds.

For a moment, the weathered, veteran jockey sounded more like an excited schoolboy. "It's a lovely sensation," he said, "when a horse is balanced and covering ground like that. With those sort of horses, all I do is try to make sure I don't get in the way. I just sit tight and hang on."

It was a comprehensive, almost brutal performance which won the July Cup for Mozart, Kinane and Aidan O'Brien, a one-horse race almost from the instant that 18 stalls crashed open. There was no need for Kinane to play jockeys, to decide where to go or who to follow, only immediate contact between accelerator and floor.

Mozart moved through the gears like a dragster, from first to fifth in half a dozen seconds, and when his jockey pressed again with a furlong to run, he found a sixth as well. "If you follow him, he'll kill you," O'Brien said afterwards. "And if you don't follow him, you won't catch him."

The ground was no faster than good here yesterday, and Mozart did not need to stretch all the way to the line. Yet he still stopped the clock within four- tenths of a second of the course record, which was set by Stravinsky when he won the same race on good-to-firm for the same jockey, trainer and owner – Michael Tabor – two years ago. On faster ground, Mozart would surely have blown the record to pieces.

Like Stravinsky, Mozart did not start the season as a sprinter, but raced instead over the mile which his pedigree suggested would be his ideal trip. He even managed to reach second place in the Irish 2,000 Guineas on soft going, a performance which looks all the more impressive now that his strong suit has been revealed to be blistering speed. For the rest of the season though, six furlongs will be the limit.

Stravinsky went on to York, where he won the Nunthorpe Stakes, before finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. Mozart seems likely to follow the same path, although unlike Stravinsky, who used to come with a run, he may have enough speed to be able to lay up with the lightning-fast American sprinters.

"He's a very, very fast horse," O'Brien said, "and five furlongs [at York] would be no problem for him at all, you'd probably just let him go that bit earlier. Serious flat pace is what he has, and Mick said that when he asked him to quicken, he quickened. That was the killing kick."

In Europe at least, it is hard to believe that there will be a sprinter to beat him, particularly since the mare Cassandra Go, who was three and a half lengths behind in second place yesterday, is in foal, and has almost certainly run her last race.

America will offer the real challenge, and O'Brien and Kinane, to whom Group One milers, stayers and sprinters all seem to come alike, may be the men to meet it.

The £50,000 Bunbury Cup also fell to a front-runner, as Atavus, who finished fourth in the Royal Hunt Cup last month, stayed on strongly over yesterday's shorter trip to beat Hand Chime by three lengths. Atavus, well ridden by Jamie Mackay, burst clear over a furlong out, leaving a hot field trailing. The colt is trained by George Margarson, who was gaining the most valuable success of his career.

Atavus will now head back to Ascot for the Tote International Handicap, for which he is quoted at 10-1 by the sponsors, one point behind Surprise Encounter, the favourite, who beat him in the Hunt Cup.

The future also holds promise for Alexius and Gossamer, who both made winning debuts in the maidens which closed the meeting.

Alexius, a slow-maturing son of Rainbow Quest, holds an entry in the St Leger, while Gossamer, who was Luca Cumani's first two-year-old winner of the season, is a full sister to Barathea. "If she does well next time, we will look at the Cheveley Park," her trainer said.

* Noverre, the winner of the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas) at Longchamp in May, seems sure to be stripped of the race after his post-race sample showed traces of a banned medication. The Godolphin-owned colt tested positive for methylprednisolone, which is used to treat horses with arthritic problems. Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager, said last night: "We accept the French findings and are resigned to Noverre being disqualified from the Classic. This is a one-off situation which could not have been foreseen because of the stringent guidelines which we follow."