Charlie Appleby and Aidan O’Brien looks set to be strongly represented in Saturday’s Betfred Champagne Stakes.
The Godolphin trainer has two of the ten remaining entries in the Group Two contest in the shape of Superlative Stakes winner Saba Desert and Pacific Avenue. The Dubawi colt won on debut at Newmarket before finishing fourth in the Solario Stakes at Sandown, albeit beaten only a neck.
O’Brien has four options to choose from including Italy. He was beaten a length-and-a-quarter by Saba Desert at the July Meeting and would be three pounds better off with that rival at the weekend. He’s raced once since, finishing second to Gewan in the Tattersalls Acomb at York. That rival, trained by Andrew Balding, is also in the Doncaster race.
Brussels, Dorset and Puerto Rico complete the O’Brien team.
Cape Orator has won his last two including a valuable sales race at Deauville and is set to represent Ralph Beckett, with Cape Ashizuri, a winner at Ayr on debut for John and Sean Quinn, and wide-margin Sandown winner Oxagon (John and Thady Gosden) completing the field.
More from Sporting Life
- Free bets
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.