Thady Gosden admits Ombudsman faces an another major test in Saturday’s Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.
The four-year-old produced a blistering turn of foot to cut down Anmaat and win the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last month and is a warm favourite for the weekend feature. However the quick turnaround is just one of things at the back of the joint-trainer’s mind.
“It’s very tight, you’d rather given them longer when they’re running in good, solid, Group One races like he is, but he’s come out of it in very good order,” Gosden told a Jockey Club media briefing.
“He only had one run before this season in the Brigadier Gerard when he was second to Almaqam and hasn’t had a hard season, or a hard career so far really, so we thought why not see if he’s ready for this.”
The Royal Ascot victory marked Ombudsman’s arrival at the top table.
“It was a very tough race, there were a lot of hard-knocking Group One horses in there and he was still relatively inexperienced, it was his first run in a Group One. We always thought he had the potential to be the class of horse he is, but you only find out on the day," his trainer continued.
“He had a few traffic problems but luckily he has that great turn of foot Night Of Thunder seems to give them and he picked up well when William Buick asked asked him.”
Gosden hopes different ground conditions and a three pounds pull in the weights will help his emerging star reverse that course-and-distance form with Almaqam from May.
“He has plenty of speed, he’s always had it, he’s proved it in every start and stays a mile-and-a-quarter well. That (the Brigadier Gerard) was just a prep run for us and the ground that day was on the softer side, maybe a little bit dead, and the weather this week has been very different.
“He has that speed, that turn of foot, and a faster surface really allows him to show it. There’s not much rain forecast and hopefully it will be on the quick side again on Saturday.”
But Almaqam clearly isn’t the only danger to the favourite in a vintage Coral-Eclipse.
“The three-year-olds look very good, you’ve got the French Derby winner in there, some serious three-year-olds coming into it but we’ll have to wait and see,” Gosden added.
“Some of Field of Gold’s form ties in with Ruling Court and the three-year-olds look a solid bunch, it’s an exciting race. You’ve got Sosie who’s arguably the best mile-and-a-quarter horse in France. We finished second to him in the D’Ispahan with Sardinian Warrior. He won the Ganay the time before that too and it’s a very hot renewal indeed.”
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