John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Light can Strike again at Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot start off with the most valuable contest on their card, the Kauto The King Handicap Chase (13:45), named after the 2021 winner of this race who gained five of his ten career wins at the track for the Tizzard stable. Brendan Powell rode Kauto The King to that success five years ago and has claims again aboard Western General for the same yard who won on his first start back from a breathing operation at Chepstow in February and was second at Hereford last time.
However, preference is for last year’s winner Light N Strike who really comes to hand at this time of year, with his last three wins over fences all having come in the month of May. He was trained by Emma Lavelle when successful twelve months ago, doing well to pull three lengths clear at the end of a race run at just a steady gallop. He then went on to finish a good third in the Summer Cup at Uttoxeter before changing stables.
While Light N Strike was well held on his only completed start from three runs for Mickey Bowen in the autumn, he’s had a break since then and, given his record, there’s a good chance he’ll be a different proposition now, especially as he’s back on the same mark as when successful last year. As one who comes from off the pace, this should be run to suit him too, with front-runners Centara and Etalon also in the field.
Is she The One for the Oaks?
Aidan O’Brien has won the Cheshire Oaks (14:35) nine times starting with a first success in 2008, though it wasn’t until last year that one of his Cheshire Oaks winners went on to follow up in the Oaks itself at Epsom, when Minnie Hauk did the double. However, she wasn’t the first Cheshire Oaks runner from Ballydoyle to go on to win the classic, as Together Forever, runner-up at Chester to Magic Wand in 2018, turned the tables on her stablemate at Epsom.
O’Brien runs two fillies again this year, with Ryan Moore preferring Amelia Earhart to stablemate Sugar Island, a Group 3 winner on her final start last year. Amelia Earhart took a while to get her head in front last season, but she too signed off with a win, pulling seven lengths clear in a maiden at Leopardstown on her first try at a mile. Her brother Cleveland won the Chester Cup round here, so she’s certainly bred to stay the longer trip and further still.
Amelia Earhart has the more experience, but I’m The One looked a very exciting prospect for John & Thady Gosden, who have the ‘Hot Trainer’ flag, when making an impressive debut at Newbury last month that sent her to the top of the Oaks betting. By Sea The Stars out of a smart German mare, I’m The One quickened away to win by six lengths, earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag, and, as denoted by the ‘large P’ on her rating, has scope for a lot better over this slightly longer trip. Her stable has won this three times, notably with subsequent Oaks winner Enable in 2017.
Another Vase for O’Brien and Moore?
Half an hour after the fillies, it’s the turn of the colts to go on trial for Epsom in the Chester Vase (15:05) and that too looks like being a potential head-to-head between Ballydoyle and the Gosdens. The latter stable is represented by Water To Wine, and it certainly wouldn’t need a miracle for him to make it two out of two, as, like I’m The One, he too made an impressive winning debut at the same Newbury meeting last month, also earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag and ‘large P’.
However, the standard is set here by Benvenuto Cellini, top on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings despite having to give 4 lb to the rest of the field. He was sent off favourite for the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster last October but in heavy ground didn’t see things out quite as strongly as stablemates Hawk Mountain (who made a successful return at Chantilly on Monday) and Action. However, he’d looked a very good prospect previously, notably when winning the KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown on good ground by five lengths, and Benvenuto Cellini will be bidding to become his trainer’s twelfth winner of the Chester Vase and jockey Ryan Moore’s tenth.
Their latest winner Lambourn went on to win the Derby last season and Ruler of The World completed the same double in 2013. The other Ballydoyle representative Proposition has a lot more to find on the ratings, having won a maiden at Galway on his final start last year, but can’t be ruled out stepping up markedly in trip. He’s a son of Frankel, like Benvenuto Cellini, and is closely related to those very good Ballydoyle fillies Magical and Rhododendron, the latter dam of another of their Derby winners Auguste Rodin.
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