Towering Feeling's slim prospects of forcing his way into the Derby tumbled to zero with a narrow victory in the 3D-Gold Cup (1,400m), but he lost no status with Douglas Whyte.
The gelding needed a big victory if he was to push his handicap rating high enough to make Derby selection a possibility but a neck was not the margin for which his connections were looking.
'He might not have looked that impressive but I do think he's a horse still on the upgrade,' said Whyte, who opened the Lunar New Year with a double after winning earlier on smart First Baby in the third.
'His run was very tough today. They were going fast early and I was following them to get across from the gate but Gerald Mosse on Phantom Thief wasn't letting me over for free and I had to keep working up to get there. He got a breather around the circle but with the two leaders going quite hard, they died on straightening, and left Towering Feeling in front with 400m to run.'
Whyte said the merit in the win was that the promising runner-up, Elegant Win, and the third-placed Phantom Thief both had easier trips but were unable to beat Towering Feeling. 'Gerald came up to me at the 300m and Towering Feeling fought him off then Elegant Win had the last shot and came to do him but couldn't,' Whyte said. 'Towering Feeling showed plenty of courage today.'
As for First Baby, the three-year-old seems to save his acceleration for only Whyte. 'When I won on him as a griffin last year, First Baby showed great acceleration,' he recalled.
