Mike de Kock and Christophe Soumillon have already proved themselves a winning team in Dubai and they did it again today in Istanbul as Musir ran out an easy winner of the €459,000 Gr.2 Topkapi Trophy.

The son of Redoute’s Choice came into this race on the back of a third place in the Hungerford Stakes following a three-month break post-Dubai. But there were no signs of any rust today as Belgian jockey Soumillon guided the group one-winning five year-old around the Veliefendi mile with ease.

As local hero Astrakhan set the others a decent pace, closely followed by Vagabond Shoes and Indomito, Musir was settled mid-division and away from any trouble.

Soumillon made his move coming wide around the turn as Indomito and Kurtiniadis were pulling away on the rails side. 1½ furlongs out Soumillon got his mount into gear and Musir, demonstrating his top level class, moved away from the field to win by 3½ lengths, in the process notching up his third group win.

Once again a Godolphin horse was edged out. This time it was Invisible Man fighting it out for second with Indomito, the Andreas Wöhler-trained five year-old coming out a head better off.

It was a further three lengths back to Dream Eater whose trainer Andrew Balding had hoped to dash the curse of two consecutive runner-up places in this race.

Commenting on his first visit to Turkey de Kock said, “Istanbul, both the city and the races, have been very good to us.

“The prizemoney is great and since most of my horses like firm ground, this track suited us well.”

As for Musir, “We’ve no plans yet. We’ll take him home, give him some time off and then make up our minds.”

Soumillon, who was heading straight to the airport to ride in France on Monday, was very matter-of-fact. “I was really lucky to ride a horse like this today. It was very easy.”