Chester analysis after Benvenuto Cellini and Amelia Earhart storm to trial success

How good was Benvenuto Cellini?

The Boodles Chester Vase Stakes didn’t look the deepest of trials once Water To Wine was taken out the day before, but you couldn’t help but be impressed by new Betfred Derby favourite BENVENUTO CELLINI.

Aidan O'Brien's horse got a bit worked up beforehand and things perhaps didn’t go as planned during the race, with stablemate Proposition opening up a sizeable lead, Ryan Moore having to sit behind Mr Colonel in third further from the leader than he would’ve liked.

Proposition set a good tempo, but Benvenuto Cellini made up his ground quickly on the sweeping turn for home and with a furlong to go it was simply a case of how far; the answer being four and a quarter lengths.

Under a 4lb penalty for his Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes win at Leopardstown last September this was an impressive reappearance, while it further boosts the good form of the Futurity Stakes at Doncaster.

Benvenuto Cellini was only third that day in the heavy ground behind stablemates Hawk Mountain and Action, the former seemingly set for the Prix du Jockey Club after winning at Chantilly while the runner-up could run at Leopardstown on Sunday in the Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial (formerly the Derrinstown).

He’ll bid to get back on the Derby trail there after fluffing his lines at Sandown, while O'Brien's Pierre Bonnard, the Epsom favourite during the winter, is also on a retrieval mission in the same race after being beaten by another stablemate in Christmas Day in the Ballysax.

There is still time for the O’Brien Derby picture to change, then, but Benvenuto Cellini has done his bit in pleasing fashion and on this evidence it might take something fairly extraordinary for Moore to jump off him come the first Saturday in June.

It was certainly a positive for him that he handled Chester so well, an encouraging sign given his full-sister, Giselle, didn’t seem to cope with the demands of Epsom in last year’s Oaks after she had raced keenly when winning a weak three-runner Oaks Trial at Lingfield.

That, along with his antics beforehand, just lingers a little when it comes to assessing Benvenuto Cellini’s Derby claims, but after this easy Chester Vase success he looks made of sterner stuff mentally and the signs are he has the physical attributes to handle Epsom Downs nicely.

Is Amelia Earhart a worthy Oaks favourite?

Absolutely. She’s bred for the job, has won one of the best trials in excellent fashion for the dominant yard and there looks to be more to come.

By Camelot, who has produced his best progeny in recent years in Luxembourg, Los Angeles and Bluestocking, and out of Venus De Milo who was second in an Irish Oaks, AMELIA EARHART was bred to be a strong stayer at a mile and a half and she looks just that after hitting the line hard in the Weatherbys Cheshire Oaks.

A filly of good size with a lengthy stride, she was at her best in the final furlong when really asked to gallop and the suspicion is there was plenty more under the bonnet if required.

Moore seemed happy, saying she handled the ground and the track well, while underlining she’ll have learnt plenty, and she very much looks the clubhouse leader in the Oaks market both for Ballydoyle and overall.

Certainly, she looks Moore’s ride for Epsom at this early stage of trials season and she continues on the same path as Minnie Hauk, last year’s Cheshire Oaks and Betfred Oaks winner for the same yard, with the two fillies having also won the same Leopardstown maiden over a mile on their final starts at two.

The combination of the hood and the blinkers on the winner looked an odd one, as it’s a mix we simply don’t see much in Britain and Ireland, but she settled well in the headgear after stepping up fully half a mile in trip from her last run.

I can only find one instance of O’Brien employing the hood and blinkers together before, on the 85-rated Pennsylvania nearly 10 years ago, with hardly any top trainers in the UK and Ireland utilising the combination.

The late Ken Slack is the most prolific trainer to have won races with the hood and blinkers in unison in the UK and Ireland, his gelding Discoverie winning seven races at Catterick and Sedgefield over hurdles and fences between 2016 and 2018 in the same headgear mix.

It just goes to show O’Brien is willing to go to unlikely places in his search for Classic glory and it will be interesting to see if she rocks up at the Oaks sporting the same headgear combination, or if it was essentially used as a training aid in the trial.

Either way, she looks the one to beat at Epsom as her general odds of 3/1 suggest.

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