'A race I've always wanted to win' - Liberty Lane proves far too good as Karl Burke's dream season continues in Cambridgeshire

Hours can be spent trying to find the winner of Britain’s big-field Flat handicaps but there appears to be a simple system – just back Karl Burke.

A week on from saddling the first, second and third in the 25-runner Ayr Gold Cup, Burke was again celebrating a major handicap success when Liberty Lane ran out a two-and-a-half length winner of the 31-runner bet365 Cambridgeshire.

Carrying top weight, Liberty Lane made the most of what proved to be a favourably low draw in stall four – the first seven home in the contest were drawn in stall 11 or lower – as he charged to victory under Clifford Lee.

“I was a bit worried at halfway as they looked like they had it on the stands' side, but I had walked the course yesterday and I was convinced that’s not where you wanted to be,” Burke said. “The ground was 100 per cent the reason he didn’t perform in the race last year, as he wants a bit of juice in the ground to be able to get into a rhythm.”

The Cambridgeshire was the second handicap Liberty Lane has won at a premier raceday this season, with the four-year-old having also landed the Suffolk Stakes at the Guineas meeting in May.

Karl Burke: has landed back-to-back big Saturday handicapsCredit: Patrick McCann

After that win, owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum spoke about how, in terms of what he felt was value for money, moving the bulk of his horses out of Newmarket to trainers in other parts of the country was a wise move, stating that it had saved him in the region of £1 million a year.

But clearly money is far from the only motivation for the owner, as Burke, Kevin Ryan and Richard Hannon have excelled with his horses this year, producing the likes of St James’s Palace Stakes winner Rosallion, Commonwealth Cup scorer Inisherin and Celebration Mile victor Ice Max among others.

Burke had never doubted Liberty Lane’s talent, pointing to how he had been highly tried as a three-year-old, and he revelled in achieving victory in a race he had long coveted.

“He’s always been a good horse and I ran him in the Dante as a three-year-old,” Burke said. “He was always running a bit free as a younger horse but he’s always been a good horse.

“I led up a horse in this race for Hugh O’Neill in 1979 called Acapulco Gold, who was a lovely chestnut. He didn’t perform that day, but this is a race I’ve always had in mind that I wanted to win.”

Having won the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot in June with Mickley, trainer Ed Bethell can spot a horse who is ahead of the handicapper and was magnanimous after finishing second with James McHenry.

“You’d have to be delighted with that performance,” Bethell said. “He was beaten by a better-handicapped horse today and he was beaten fair and square. We can’t be anything but proud of him.”

David Menuisier has also enjoyed big handicap success in 2024 with Toimy Son, who landed the Golden Mile at Glorious Goodwood, and the trainer is looking ahead to Qipco British Champions Day after he claimed third.

“As I said before the race, he's in the form of his life,” Menuisier said. “It was not ideal today with the ground becoming a bit tacky, and he is probably better at a mile, but he’s run another stormer. He’s in the Balmoral Handicap on Champions Day and that’s where we’ll go with him.”

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