Timeform highlight a ratings banker, a big improver, and a Timeform Flag at York on Saturday.
The Ratings Banker
Rocket Rodney – 16.45 York
With competitive racing at York, even outside of the handicaps, on the final day of the meeting, a ratings banker hardly leaps off the page but Rocket Rodney sets a good standard back in Listed company in the Julia Graves Roses Stakes for two-year-olds over five furlongs. He’s proving himself a useful and speedy gelding and his record of two wins and three seconds from five starts is hard to knock.
It's probably best not to take his neck defeat to Little Big Bear in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot too literally as the high-class winner has clearly made massive strides since, but that was still a fine effort from Rocket Rodney who holds the sixth, Bolt Action, on that form. Since then, Rocket Rodney has gone on to Listed success himself at Sandown and there was no disgrace in his subsequent defeat to the promising filly Trillium in the Molecomb Stakes last time.
Rocket Rodney beat the rest pretty convincingly at Goodwood, including Thunder Moor and Looking For Lynda who take him on again here, but had no answer to the unexposed winner. Once again, it's another filly, Treasure Trove, who rates as Rocket Rodney’s biggest threat here, but back down in grade he should be capable of conceding weight all round.
The Big Improver
Soulcombe – 14.25 York
There are several unexposed stayers in the three-year-olds’ version of the Ebor, the Melrose Handicap, and the Charlie Appleby pair Wild Crusade and Al Nafir certainly fall into that category, being full brothers to Godolphin stars Yibir and Ghaiyyath respectively.
But receiving plenty of weight from that pair down at the bottom of the weights is Soulcombe for William Haggas and Hollie Doyle. The son of Frankel didn’t show a great deal in his first three starts, but stepping up to longer trips in handicaps, a gelding operation, and the fitting of blinkers have all been factors in some much better efforts of late. Soulcombe looked value for extra when winning at Haydock and Ascot earlier in the summer before being tested in a much deeper handicap at Goodwood last time won by the subsequent Great Voltigeur runner-up Secret State.
A slow start meant that Soulcombe raced well off the pace at Goodwood, leaving him with plenty to do come the business end of the race which wasn’t ideal given the steady gallop, but he picked his way through the field and was putting in his best work at the finish to be beaten only around a length and a half into fourth. That suggests that Soulcombe hasn’t finished progressing yet and he makes plenty of appeal off his low weight.
Timeform Flag
Mighty Ulysses – 13.50 York
Top rated, Hot Trainer
The Group 3 Strensall Stakes sees a rematch between the three-year-old colts Mighty Ulysses and Alflaila, the pair who fought out the finish of the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting which was won by a certain Baaeed last year. Mighty Ulysses was ridden rather differently to previously on that occasion, the firmish conditions ideal for front running, and he ran out a ready winner under Frankie Dettori, though had to rally to regain the lead inside the final furlong before keeping on well.
Alfaila was a length and a half back in second, and while the winner hasn’t been out again since, the runner-up went on to easily win another Listed contest at Pontefract later in July, so the Newmarket form looks solid.
As for Mighty Ulysses, representing the in-form team of John and Thady Gosden, he has already been tried at the highest level and may well be back in Group 1 company again further down the line as he holds a Queen Elizabeth II Stakes entry. Having run well to finish second under top weight in the Silver Bowl Handicap at Haydock, Mighty Ulysses then acquitted himself really well at Royal Ascot in the St James’s Palace Stakes when keeping on under a patient ride to be beaten only around half a length into fifth in a blanket finish behind 2000 Guineas winner Coroebus. This represents another easier task, and he should prove too good for Alflaila again here.
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