This week we're running a series reflecting on the 2020 Flat season so far and where we stand in each division - first up, Matt Brocklebank on the milers.
Current King – Palace Pier
Much was made of Pinatubo’s return to winning ways in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville over the weekend but while that seven-furlong Group One acted as the springboard for Too Darn Hot to eventually claim top miling honours last year, the Godolphin horse has work to do to emulate him.
With Charlie Appleby already seemingly working back from the Breeders’ Cup with Pinatubo – considering a possible shot at the Prix de la Foret en route – it looks like the Sussex Stakes will be left for Siskin, Circus Maximus and Mohaather (more on him below) to battle it out on the Downs.
Ger Lyons’ Irish Guineas hero Siskin looks a serious force but from a British perspective it’s hard not to be excited about what Pinatubo’s conqueror Palace Pier could achieve in this division, and his Royal Ascot performance – when eventually quite comfortably seeing off Pinatubo, Wichita and Positive in the St James’s Palace Stakes – already looks very strong form.
It was the fourth start of his life, his first at the top level, and represented a new racing surface having never previously encountered anything worse than good ground.
Star horses can overcome such questions and John Gosden’s colt did so in great style, making him the top dog in the division, while his potential for further improvement is there for all to see.
Rising Star - Mohaather
The truncated 2020 Flat season has been a huge success so far for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and his number one jockey Jim Crowley, highlighted by a sensational Royal Ascot when the rider was only edged out of the leading riders’ gong by Frankie Dettori on countback.
The winners have continued to flow since then and Motakhayyel (Richard Hannon) supplementing his Buckingham Palace win with victory off a mark of 105 in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket’s July Festival last week clearly marks him down as potentially Group class.
Khaloosy’s (Roger Varian) next appearance in the Group Three Bonham Thoroughbred Stakes at Glorious Goodwood is eagerly awaited after the three-year-old won the Britannia doing handstands, but lightly-raced four-year-old Mohaather can still slot neatly into this category given he is still so unexposed at the highest level.
The eyecatcher of the week at Ascot when essentially not coming off the bridle and ending up seventh after a really troubled passage in the Queen Anne, he made amends with a stylish, three and a quarter-length defeat of San Donato in the Group Two Summer Mile back in Berkshire on Saturday.
Trainer Marcus Tregoning claims he’s the best miler he’s ever had and a Sussex clash with Siskin is very much on the horizon.
As is usually the case, that promises to be a fascinating event tactically with the two at the top of the market possessing explosive changes of gear, whereas Circus Maximus is a tenacious fighting who wears his heart on his sleeve.
They would be unwise to give Aidan O’Brien’s horse too much of an easy time out in front and it will be interesting to see if the Shadwell or Juddmonte teams look to field something in the way of a ‘spoiler’.
Dark Horse - Kameko
The potentially absurd juxtaposition of the words ‘2000 Guineas winner’ and ‘Dark Horse’ is not lost on me, but Kameko seems to have dropped off the radar when it comes to leading milers and there’s every reason to believe he could be right back on it when the music stops at the end of the year.
You get the definite sense that he’d have been aimed more towards the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown than the Investec Derby had the season transpired as normal, but I suppose the key question now is when might connections next decide to run the son of Kitten’s Joy back over eight furlongs?
He blatantly didn’t stay at Epsom but there’s going to be a strong desire to try and bag a Group One over 10 furlongs at some point, an urge that is likely to lead to York’s Juddmonte International Stakes next month.
But I can’t get out of my head how much pace he showed to weave through the pack in the Guineas and scoot past horses who have since looked top-notch over seven furlongs.
It could be too late to see Kameko genuinely take top spot in this division, but races like the QEII on Champions Day at Ascot and a trip to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Mile would have to be on Andrew Balding’s mind if York doesn’t go exactly to plan.
As things stand, the horse has won two Group One races, both of which at a mile, and there’s no doubt he has plenty more to offer in spite of what happened in a rather odd renewal of the Derby.
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