Kieran Clark delivers the Timeform Takeaway from day one at the Sky Bet Ebor Festival, where Item and Maltese Cross enhanced their Longchamp credentials.
The build up to an exceptional renewal of the Juddmonte International was all about a potential match between the highest Timeform rated middle-distance performer and last year’s winner Ombudsman (134) and dual French Classic-winning and now top-rated three-year-old following Bow Echo’s retirement Constitution River (128p). Indeed Ombudsman’s pre-race rating was on a par with Baaeed before he won this and lower than only the greats of Sea The Stars and Frankel this century.
What looked a straightforward race to assess pace-wise was soon turned on its head. Presumed Ballydoyle pacemaker Action missing the break and quickly turning to man-marking tactics more akin to the returning Premier League this coming weekend, sitting either upside or just in front of the dropped-out Ombudsman which forced the odds-on favourite into trouble entering the straight after the other pair from Ballydoyle who’d raced up with the pace elected to stay towards the far rail, Constitution River ending up racing a bit too freely to last out after hitting the front having started to get on his toes when leaving the parade ring.
As for Ombudsman, he was quickly into contention when asked for his effort when in the clear, though possibly making his ground too quickly, running a time between the 4f and 3f markers that was at least 0.22 seconds quicker than those that beat him, those exertions telling as he ran the slowest final 1f of that contingent.
Connections were quick to blame the ground, though conditions weren’t as testing as intimated by John Gosden afterwards: "He just didn't like the ground. It's gone soft and it's not his thing." Timeform are likely to call the ground good to soft on the round course, and good on the straight course, slower than the previous two renewals since the race has been run on the inner line, but well away from extremes, with historical comparisons beyond the last two years complicated by previous renewals being run over 32 yards further.
Even though the pair that dominated the betting settled for minor honours, Almaqam ran a career best in his narrow defeat and Item’s winning performance still marks him down as an above-average Juddmonte winner. The way the sponsor-owned winner saw it out suggesting a return to further will suit and he has untapped potential over a mile a and a half, likely he could yet be a major player in the Arc granted the right conditions, so too Maltese Cross, one of the best looking horses likely to be in action all week, who was impressive in landing the earlier Great Voltigeur, his likely rating in the mid-120s meaning he’ll be of serious interest if going to France too and a rather thin-looking pool of middle-distance 3-y-os is all of a sudden looking a little deeper.
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