But it was still another red-letter Saturday for Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team, with Cape Blanco blitzing stablemate Rip Van Winkle by 5.50 lengths in the Grade 1 Irish Champion Stakes at The Curragh and Coronation Stakes heroine Lillie Langtry bouncing back to form with an impressive victory in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes on the same course.
Morning rain proved a positive for Cape Blanco, who, being an Irish Derby winner, gets the 2100m trip well, but the slow ground took the sting out of Rip Van Winkle’s speed, and, whereas Johnny Murtagh never looked happy, Colm O’Donoghue was able to call the shots out in front and his aggressive tactics had the field waving the white flag turning for home.
Cape Blanco was beaten 11 lengths by Harbinger in the King George, leaving connections of the injured Ascot winner, who now goes to stud in Japan, reflecting on what might have been. Though Cape Blanco is entered in the Arc, unless Coolmore’s ante-post favourite Fame And Glory bombs out in the Prix Foy at Longchamp next Sunday, he is likely to be kept in reserve for the Emirates Airlines Champion Stakes at Newmarket, with Rip Van Winkle reverting to 1600m for a ``rubber” match with Canford Cliffs in the QE11 Stakes at Ascot on 25 September.
Like `Rip’, Twice Over, a short head back in third, looked to be feeling the effects of a hard race in the Juddmonte International at York, but the Champion remains on the table for him, with another crack at the Dubai World Cup at Meydan next March also a possibility.
Lillie Langtry, who had a career-threatening injury after last year’s Breeders Cup, is likely to be in O’Brien’s Churchill Downs team again come the first week in November, though the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp’s Arc meeting is the next port of call. Spacious, the brave runner-up, will probably have her swansong in the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket next month.
Starspangledbanner, who had been campaigned Down Under before he came to Europe in March, looked a little flat as he struggled home in fifth behind Markab in the clash of the speed horses. He will now have a break, and, while options are plentiful, his versatility makes the Breeders Cup Mile a distinct possibility.
Richard Hannon has enjoyed a fantastic season, but his team have gone off the boil this last month, and, following the big-race defeats of Strong Suit, Memory and Dick Turpin, Paco Boy was the latest of his high-profile horses to bite the dust in the Prix Moulin at Longchamp, in which he trailed in fourth behind Criquette Head’s Fuisse, who also now enters the Champion Stakes mix.
However, we can put a line through Paco Boy’s run as he was all dressed up with nowhere to go when the door was firmly closed on Richard Hughes’s optimistic dash up the far rails. He might have one final run in Britain in the Grade 1 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket on 16 October, with the Breeders Cup Mile still under consideration for his farewell performance before he takes up stallion duties at Highclere Stud.
Meanwhile, the Brits cleaned up in Istanbul for Turkey’s biggest racing day of the year, Michael Jarvis’s Pressing completing a hugely popular hat-trick of wins in the Grade 2 Topkapi Trophy, while Indian Days gave trainer James Given his biggest pay-day so far when capturing the Grade 2 Bosphorus Cup.
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Arctic Cosmos, who looked a reformed character when he worked in blinkers at Newmarket last week, might be the each-way value against Godolphin’s red hot favourite Rewilding in Saturday’s Ladbrokes St Leger (16:20) at Doncaster.
John Gosden has twice won the world’s oldest classic, with Shantou and Luciano, and he considers Arctic Cosmos to be ``tailor made for the long straight of Town Moor’’. He added: ``The blinds have woken him up and they ought to help him travel better in a race.
He was all over the place on the undulations of Goodwood when third to Rebel Soldier in the Gordon Stakes at the ‘Glorious’ meeting, but we were using it as a prep-race and he was really motoring at the end. Over this extra 500m he should come into his own, and, though I am not sure if we can beat Rewilding, we’ll give him a race.’’
Rewilding was hugely impressive when slamming Irish Derby runner-up Midas Touch by four lengths in the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, and connections feel that their Epsom Derby third will improve again for the step up in trip. If so, we might all be chasing the places, but the favourite is a quite sparely made individual and he might not relish a scrap, so at such skinny odds he is worth taking on.
Dandino, who finished in front of Arctic Cosmos at Goodwood, has had a busy season and might not confirm the form, and with two pacemakers in the race there must be a doubt about the stamina of dual Oaks heroine Snow Fairy, especially with the ground having eased.
Saturday opens with the big two-year-old race of the week, the G2 Champagne Stakes (15:10), in which I have no intention of opposing Godolphin’s runaway Newbury winner Saamidd. He is reckoned to be their best juvenile and, with Gimcrack winner Approve not sure to relish this extra furlong, I make Waiter’s Dream the danger.
We can kick off tomorrow at Doncaster with Gosden’s Nathaniel in the maiden (15:00). He is one of the best youngsters in the stable and bumped into Henry Cecil’s best when beaten by Frankel first time out at Newmarket. He’ll be at short odds, but he WILL win!
There will be a full field of 22 for the £300,000 Weatherbys-sponsored Sales race (16:10), but I was enormously impressed with Wootton Bassett when he completed his hat-trick at York’s Ebor meeting. He is Richard Fahey’s best two-year-old, and it will take something special to beat him.
Monday night’s rain has increased Opinion Poll’s chances of landing Friday’s Doncaster Cup (15:40). He was brave on ground plenty quick enough when winning the Lonsdale Cup at York, and, while Electrolyser (fourth) might get closer, I don’t think he’ll turn the form around.
What the diminutive Zebedee lacks in size he makes up for with a giant heart, and he can make it six wins from seven races in the Flying Childers Stakes (14:35). He has one sharp burst at the end of the race and Richard Hughes rides him brilliantly, and, while the grey got 1200m well enough at Newmarket last time, he’ll appreciate the return to the minimum trip.