‘He’s Justifying What We Thought of Him’: Marquand Steers More Thunder To Hungerford Success

[Wandering Eyes]

So obviously a Stakes horse operating in handicaps, More Thunder (Night Of Thunder) shed his thinly-veiled disguise once and for all on Saturday to dominate Newbury's G2 Hungerford Stakes. Narrowly denied in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot before narrowly on top in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket's July Festival, the 6-4 favourite had ideal fast fractions to run at throughout the seven-furlong feature and delivered his customary powerful finale to beat the penalised Lennox winner Witness Stand (Expert Eye) by 2 1/4 lengths.

“He's fulfilling all that we expected and justifying what we thought of him–he felt so comfortable there, it's the best he's been in the prelims too so it was the complete performance,” jockey Tom Marquand said of the colt who William Haggas inherited from Sir Michael Stoute. “I was convinced that tempo was the problem in the Bunbury Cup and why he wasn't impressive there.”

“Today he was explosive through the last two furlongs, he can easily swing along at the tempo of six and could even get a mile at the right place. We have a tendency to pigeon-hole horses, but he could go different distances like the Australians do. The longer we've had him, the more we've noticed things about him and the small margins make a difference. There is the Foret and the Sprint Cup back at six and options at a mile–wherever we go, I'm sure they'll get it right.”

More Thunder and @TomMarquand win the Group Two Hungerford Stakes in emphatic fashion! @NewburyRacing | @WilliamHaggas pic.twitter.com/qvzzV3FeOf

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) August 16, 2025

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