MAJOR PROSPECT. Clemmie, ante-post favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas, is taken to outstay Heartache in the Cheveley Park at Newmarket on Saturday.
The crème de la crème of European thoroughbreds will descend on Chantilly on Sunday for the 5-million Euro Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – we’ll take a detailed look at Brexit’s richest race later in the week – but what a fabulous three-day appetiser we have at Newmarket, starting tomorrow.
Four of Britain’s most prestigious two-year-olds races will be run, the Cheveley and Middle Park, both carrying Group 1 status, plus a brace of Group 2s, the Royal Lodge and Rockfel Stakes.
And on the Rowley Mile on Saturday we have the 35-runner Cambridgeshire Handicap, the first leg of the autumn double and an 1800m cavalry charge, which is both one of the biggest be ing races of the season and also one of the toughest puzzles punters face all year.
My two against the eld in what is a lottery of a race are BIG COUNTRY and EL HAYEM.
Mick Appleby is a trainer renowned for being able to conjure improvement in horses, and since Big Country joined him from Ire- land in the spring he has won three races and run the classy Ballet Concerto close in a competitive handicap at York in mid July.
Appleby put Big Country away after that race to protect his oficial rating, and with champion jockey-elect Silvestre de Sousa on board he’s my number one.
I’ll also be having a saver on El Hayem, who needed his comeback race at York, having had a break, and is trained by a master in Sir Michael Stoute, who has always thought this race would suit him.
Ireland could snap up both the juvenile Group 1s, with Aidan O’Brien’s CLEMMIE, ante-post favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas, taken to outstay recent
Flying Childers Stakes winner Heartache in the Cheveley Park, while Gordon Ellio , more associated with the jumpers, convinced BECKFORD will appreciate dropping back to 1200m in the colts equivalent, having shown stamina limitations over the 1400m last time. Coolmore’s Sioux Nation is the danger.
O’Brien has a strong team for the Royal Lodge, but the Brits might hold him at bay here, with John Gosden’s improving ROAR- ING LION just preferred to Godolphin’s Solario Stakes winner Masar.
Jeremy Noseda is likely to opt for Friday’s Rockfel rather than the Cheveley Park for his smart filly TAKE ME WITH YOU, who can upset hotpot September here.
Having finished third in the Albany at Royal Ascot, Take Me With You, who has always been the apple of Noseda’s eye, bolted up in an egg and spoon maiden at Windsor. She’s definitely Pattern class and is the value against the favourite.
On the same day the Silver Cambridgeshire – for horses who don’t make the cut in the main event – can go to the in-form THUNDERING BLUE, who might well be one of those to miss out on the £160,000 pot.
He can make it four in a row and take this consolation prize under Ryan Moore should the ballot go against him.
There is a terrific supporting card at Chantilly on Sunday, and I like the chance of French-trained ZELZAL in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret. Last year’s winner Limato will start favourite here, but he has not looked the same force this summer and the classy Gallic horse can turn him over.
The Prix de l’Abbaye, Europe’s sprint championship, is likely to be the final race, but MARSHA will be well worth waiting for as she bids to win the 1000m dash for the second year running.
Marsha put Battaash to the sword in the Nunthorpe at York, where Sheikh Hamdan’s sprinter boiled over in the preliminaries, and I wouldn’t fancy him coping with the hullaballoo that he will encounter on Arc Day, so it’s Marsha again for me.
Newbury’s Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes suffers from its close proximity to those major Group 1s for two-year-olds at Newmar- ket. James Gar eld, who won the most recent renewal last Saturday, looks a smart youngster, but rookie trainer George Scott might be flying too high with ambitious plans of taking the colt to California in November for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
The recent introduction to races on grass for the youngsters at our sports equivalent of the world series has given Europeans an extra option, but whether James Gar eld quite has the class or the stamina for Del Mar’s 1700m is questionable.
This is the time of the year when O’Brien brings out his potential Derby horses, and Saxon Warrior, a son of Japanese super- star Deep Impact, leapfrogged to pole-position in the ante-post market for Epsom next June when winning the Group 2 Beresford Stakes for the Coolmore team.
Subsequent Irish Derby hero Capri won this race 12 months ago, and it is a race that O’Brien always targets with his be er two- year-olds, but while Saxon Warrior varies between 6-1 and 12-1 for the Derby, O’Brien revealed that a suitably impressed Ryan Moore felt that he had “plenty of pace” so the 2000 Guineas could also enter the equation.
Down Under Melbourne’s spring carnival kicks into gear next week, but they will have to do without one of Australia’s most up-and-coming young trainers, Ciaron Maher, who has been banned for six months for “a serious lapse of judgement”.
Maher, who trained last year’s Caul eld Cup winner, Jameka, has had this charge hanging over his head for almost three years now, having failed to alert the authorities that five of the horses in his stable were actually owned by Peter Foster, a convicted conman.
Foster has previously gained notoriety in Britain, for persuading the Duchess of York (Sarah Ferguson) to promote a weight loss product and, more recently, being allegedly involved with Cherie Blair, wife of the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to purchase two flats in Bristol.
Besides his suspension Maher, who won’t be able to return to the sport until next April, was also ned $75,000.
Talking of Oz, British stables, still looking for that elusive first Melbourne Cup success, will be relying on Charlie Appleby this year, with the Godolphin trainer, who did so well at last year’s Spring Carnival, sending a select team of four this week.
Francis Assisi is a possible for the Caul eld Cup beforehand, Folkswood heads for the Caul field Stakes, while Qewy will attempt to repeat last year’s victory in the Geelong Cup. Godolphin’s other Aussie raider is Kidmenever, who was placed in Listed races at Royal Ascot and Sandown last summer.
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