Ben Linfoot wonders if Desert Castle can become the latest superstar to burst onto the scene in the Dewhurst, a breeding ground for future champions.
Few two-year-old races have a roll of honour like the Dewhurst.
This century alone we have had Rock Of Gibraltar, Shamardal, Sir Percy, New Approach, Frankel, Dawn Approach, Belardo, Churchill, U S Navy Flag, Too Darn Hot, Pinatubo, St Mark’s Basilica, Native Trail, Chaldean and City Of Troy all crowned in the Dewhurst, all Group 1 winners as older horses.
Future champions, indeed.
There are the odd years where the Dewhurst winner doesn’t amount to much. Intense Focus couldn’t win in two races at three, ditto War Command, Beethoven and Parish Hall could only strike at Group 3 level in the future, and Air Force Blue, who looked a Dewhurst winner out of the very top drawer at the time, could hardly beat a rival home the following year. More recently Shadow Of Light couldn’t win at three having won the Dewhurst, either.
But, in the main, the Dewhurst is just about as good a pointer as you can get heading into the following year’s three-year-olds.
And the short-priced Dewhurst favourites have a very good record of converting their two-year-old promise into three-year-old riches, War Command, Air Force Blue and Shadow Of Light aside.
Rock Of Gibraltar, Frankel, Dawn Approach, Churchill, Pinatubo, Native Trail and City Of Troy all won the Dewhurst at odds-on and this Saturday it looks likely that Desert Castle will be joining them.
The Charlie Appleby-trained and Godolphin-owned horse’s rise has been rapid, his debut win coming on Newmarket’s July Course on August 7 before he slammed his rivals in the Group 2 Betfred Champagne Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger Festival, cruising into contention and quickening clear for an easy three-length success.
Everything about the performance screamed Dewhurst, and with Joseph O’Brien electing to run his own impressive National Stakes winner Folsom Blues in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp over the weekend, the coast is clear for Desert Castle to go and win his Group 1 at the first attempt.
With Joseph not offering up a Dewhurst runner, the main challengers, as ever, will come from his father, Aidan O’Brien having three to choose from, notably Darkness Falls and Great Barrier Reef, and they are of course respected, but Desert Castle is expected to have too many gears for them to deal with over seven furlongs on Saturday.
The whispers were gathering before Desert Castle’s debut (sent off 1/2, won in a canter by three and a half lengths) that he was Appleby’s best two-year-old and while that isn’t a foregone conclusion thanks to the emergence of his stablemate Musical Times, herself odds-on for the bet365 Fillies’ Mile on Friday, he looks his best juvenile colt by a long way.
Already priced up as 4/1 favourite for next May’s Betfred 2000 Guineas after just the two starts, those odds could well shorten further after Saturday, for all that he might have to do something special on the clock to justify any further trimming given the opposition look up against it.
O’Brien’s Darkness Falls might have something to say about that, but he burst onto the scene over nine furlongs in the first running of the Golden Fleece Stakes as a Group 1 at Leopardstown a month ago and the relatively drastic drop in trip hardly looks in his favour, if he turns up at all with the Group 1 Futurity Trophy at Doncaster later in the month another option for him.
It would be fascinating to see it, however, the antepost 2000 Guineas favourite up against the antepost Betfred Derby favourite, and while Desert Castle himself is second in the betting for Epsom, his pedigree suggests a mile and a half might well be a stretch.
By Frankel out of Sand Vixen (Dubawi), Desert Castle will be aiming to become the fourth Group 1 winner for that cross, following in the hoofprints of Adayar (Timeform 130), Homeless Songs (Timeform 119) and Mostahdaf (Timeform 129), so he will have to go some to become the highest rated Frankel out of a Dubawi mare.
His dam was a Godolphin filly trained by Saeed bin Suroor who only raced over sprint distances at two, while his full-brother, Dream Castle, stayed only as far as nine furlongs and his full sister, With The Moonlight, finished last in the Oaks at Epsom on her only go at a mile and a half after excelling at 10 furlongs throughout her career.
At this stage Desert Castle looks a future miler who might get 10 furlongs, but for now he goes into the Dewhurst aiming to become champion juvenile and thus setting himself up nicely for a Classic campaign next year.
Getting on that Dewhurst roll of honour isn’t a golden ticket to future stardom, but the odds aren’t bad. Perhaps Desert Castle will be the race’s latest superstar.
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