Our Ben Linfoot answers the key questions heading into Saturday's Group 1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park.
How good a renewal is this?
It has got all the potential to be a modern classic. The bookmakers have the runaway Prince Of Wales’s hero at odds-against, Thady Gosden says ‘it’s a very hot renewal indeed’ and Aidan O’Brien, going for his fourth win in five years with a three-year-old, has two of the Classic vintage in there and neither is in the first two in the betting.
Between them this lot have won a Prince Of Wales’s, Grand Prix de Paris, Prix Ganay, Prix d’Ispahan, Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, Prix du Jockey Club, Brigadier Gerard, Champion Stakes, 2000 Guineas and Futurity Trophy – and all in the last 12 months – giving this Coral-Eclipse the kind of depth we haven’t seen for many a moon.
The Eclipse nearly always injects some excitement into the Flat season post-Royal Ascot, the first clash of the generations amongst the colts and the curtain raiser to a summer tour that takes in the delights of Newmarket’s July course, Glorious Goodwood and York’s Ebor Festival.
Greats of the game like Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Wollow, Sadler’s Wells, Dancing Brave, Mtoto, Nashwan, Giant’s Causeway, Sea The Stars and Enable adorn the roll of honour and whoever wins Saturday’s renewal will likely deserve their place amongst those great champions.
Will they all turn up, though?
You never know but things are looking pretty good in that regard.
Field Of Gold keeps delaying his step up to 10 furlongs by blossoming over a mile and that means the Gosdens can slot Ombudsman in this space and they’re happy with how he’s come out of Ascot to let him take his chance.
Sosie looks confirmed to come over after improving over this sort of trip in the French spring, while there’s no reason why Aidan O’Brien won’t run his pair Camille Pissarro and Delacroix here with the 10-furlong distance looking ideal for both.
Charlie Appleby will want Ruling Court to bounce back quickly and he’s ready to move up to 1m2f now while the sometimes fragile Anmaat looks to be taking his racing better than ever.
The only one of the fancied horses you’d be worried about is Ed Walker’s Almaqam, on account of the ground. He probably wants it softer than it’s likely to be and it remains to be seen if his trainer lets him take his chance or if he puts him away until the ground eases.
What are we looking at conditions-wise?
Unfortunately for Walker, there’s a hot week in store and, with thunderstorms disappearing from the forecast, we can expect ground on the quick side of ‘Good’.
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper has applied 40mm of water in the last week with more irrigation planned and that probably lessens the possibility of them getting close to Sea The Stars’ race-record time of 2:03:40, achieved on ground Timeform described as ‘Good to Firm’ in 2009 after a couple of pacemakers set a relentless gallop.
Expanded could act as a pacemaker this year for his stablemates Camille Pissarro and Delacroix, but apart from Almaqam, who changed tactics to make all in the Brigadier Gerard last time, all of these usually like to race from off the pace, so tactically it will make for interesting viewing.
Who deserves top billing?
It has to be Ombudsman. There are so many candidates for the victory here but none more convincing than Godolphin’s son of Night Of Thunder who has really benefitted from the patience shown by the Gosdens.
His unbeaten three-year-old campaign was a bit of a slow burner, but he emerged as a candidate for top-level honours in France late last summer and his Prince Of Wales’s victory last month, complete with rapid turn of foot off a solid pace, was about as good as Group 1 debuts get – and he was value for more given the trouble he found in the straight.
He’s the standard bearer now and this, another 10-furlong right-handed race on a track with a stiff finish, looks absolutely perfect for him. He’s never gone anti-clockwise on a racetrack yet, so he might have something to prove if he heads to York for the Juddmonte International, but we know how effective he is this way around and he looks far and away the one to beat.
I’m certainly not concerned by talk this might be too soon after Royal Ascot. Seventeen days looks plenty of time between races, especially for a four-year-old that has had just the six career starts.
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Does Sosie need softer ground?
It’s true that all of Sosie’s form has come on ground that, officially at least, had some cut in it.
Timeform rated the ParisLongchamp ground as ‘Good’ in late April for his Prix Ganay win, though, and it’s always dangerous to assume these French raiders need it softer just because that’s what they usually race on.
Indeed, being by Sea The Stars, he’s probably versatile when it comes to the ground and he’s not got the knee action of a bona fide mud lover.
Whether he’s quick enough or classy enough to beat Ombudsman over 10 furlongs is more of a worry, while the Gosdens have a handy line on his form through Prix d’Ispahan runner-up Sardinian Warrior.
How does the three-year-old challenge stack up?
It’s good. There’s no Derby winner dropping back – Lambourn ain’t that type of horse even if he hadn’t just run in the Irish Derby – but there is a 2000 Guineas winner stepping up in trip and a French Derby winner staying put at 10 furlongs.
Ruling Court has a bit to prove now after Field Of Gold emphatically reversed that Guineas form in the St James’s Palace Stakes, but he is very interesting racing at 10 furlongs for the first time being a son of Justify who was bred for this sort of a trip.
The fact he’s 20/1 tells you how deep this race is and it’s the O’Brien pair, Camille Pissaro and Delacroix, who the bookmakers are more cautious about.
Camille Pissarro put in a career-best run to win the Prix du Jockey Club and it’s amazing to think he’s racked up four more races than the year-older Ombudsman on his way to Saturday’s race.
That experience won’t do him any harm and getting 10lb from the older horses could be crucial as we saw when stablemate Whirl sunk the stronger-travelling Kalpana in last weekend’s Pretty Polly at the Curragh.
It remains to be seen how strong a French Derby it was and Camille Pissarro did benefit from another piece of Ryan Moore magic that day, so I wonder if Delacroix might be more of a danger to Ombudsman here?
His Derby was over very quickly at Epsom and if you toss that run out he’s a progressive 10-furlong horse who looks a danger to all in receipt of the 10lb weight-for-age. I can’t forget the gears he showed when seeing off the likes of Lambourn and Tennessee Stud earlier in the campaign.
Hotazhell and Stanhope Gardens have three-year-old form that tie in closely with Delacroix, but both make their debut over 10 furlongs here. For all their potential, this looks a tough arena for such a challenge.
Who is the best of the rest and what is your 1-2-3?
Almaqam has to be in the conversation if he runs but looking at the likely ground I wouldn’t be surprised to see him skip this in favour of something where there will be more ease in the conditions.
Either way, he’d likely find it difficult to uphold Brigadier Gerard form with Ombudsman as he had a race-fitness advantage over that rival in May and was in receipt of 3lb.
Indeed, I like Ombudsman at anything odds-against or evens here, the son of Night Of Thunder knocking the eye out at Royal Ascot where he outclassed them in a top renewal of the Prince Of Wales’s. That looks far and away the best form in this.
Delacroix could be the one to give him most to do and if there’s one at a price we haven’t mentioned it’s White Birch who looks to be building towards a season’s best.
Good enough to smash Auguste Rodin by three lengths on his day, he’s looked to retain all his ability in two starts after a year off and his sire, Ulysses, loved this course and distance where he was two from two, including the 2017 Eclipse.
- OMBUDSMAN
- Delacroix
- White Birch
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