The Saturday five | Palace edges Saturday sizzlers | Ben Linfoot ranks the top five performances on a super Saturday
Ben Linfoot ranks the top five performances on what he describes as the best day of the Flat season so far with Palace Pier topping the quintet.
Click the links for free video replays
1. Peerless Palace adds to growing G1 haul
On the back of Bolshoi Ballet’s serious Cazoo Derby marker and a fantastic three days at York’s Dante Festival the Flat season has finally taken off in style.
And at Newbury and Newmarket on Saturday we had the best single afternoon of the season so far as superb performances dominated the agenda.
Picking a top five wasn’t easy and neither was highlighting the top one – but PALACE PIER edges it given his storming effort came in a Group One.
The Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes, the first top-level contest for older horses of the campaign, was sadly lost last season but Palace Pier is a horse worth waiting two years for.
We even had a shiver down the neck moment when Frankie Dettori, ever the showman, took a long, lingering, look over his left shoulder, making sure there were no rivals towards the centre of the track that could deny him a fifth Lockinge.
There were none, although Lady Bowthorpe tried her level best with a barnstorming run in second to be beaten just a length and a half – fillies-only races should see her make the breakthrough at the top level.
While she still has to break her Group One duck this was Palace Pier’s third and it’s looking a case of how big that haul could grow throughout the campaign.
He’s a tremendous miler in an average division, and while this dominant performance may temper enthusiasm to step him up in trip to 10 furlongs for the time being, there’s no doubting he looks to have the tools for that challenge and it could well be an aspiration for connections with his stallion career in mind.
But, wherever he goes, his name will be synonymous with the best the sport has to offer in 2021.
2. So Easy for awesome Aasy
With all that in mind you’d think it would be easy to single out Palace Pier as the best performer of the day, but if you haven’t seen AL AASY’s Al Rayyan Stakes cruise be sure to check out the video replay as he ran him mighty close in the race for top spot.
This was Sinatra at the Opera stuff and, like the American crooner, Al Aasy has bounced back from a career dip in mighty style, his Gordon Stakes flop at Goodwood last July long forgotten following his two imperious displays this campaign.
There’s something about watching a horse win a good race on the bridle and Jim Crowley didn’t twitch a muscle in this, and the way he glided past a Classic winner in Logician with such authority was glorious. And under a 3lb penalty, as well.
You can question the form, of course. Thunderous might well have been disadvantaged by racing towards the far rail and Logician might well have been rusty after 218 days off the track, while Ranch Hand and Rainbow Dreamer were simply suitably outclassed.
But Al Aasy just looks the real deal. William Haggas said he ‘looks like Nijinsky’ at home in his work and we’re seeing his class on the track now.
It’s the Coronation Cup next, for which he is a best price of 11/8. It will be his first ever crack at a Group One, but he’ll be running at that level for the foreseeable and it looks a matter of time until he’s winning in that company.
3. John Leeper living up to his name
The Derby dark horse JOHN LEEPER is not so dark anymore and after his Betway Fairway Stakes victory at Newmarket he was cut to as low as 6/1 from 16s for Epsom.
He might not be quite ready for a test like that just yet, but there is no doubting he’s a very nice horse with a big future as he continued his progression with a good win despite adversity.
The problem was the pace – they went slow early - and William Buick struggled to settle the son of Frankel and Snow Fairy who simply wanted to go faster than his jockey would allow him in the first half mile.
That greenness could have cost him the race but to his great credit he was good enough anyway, and he will have learnt plenty here when Buick asked him to quicken through the gap between Tasman Bay and Flyin’ High.
His earlier exertions didn’t stop him from taking control of the race at that point and he handled the dip well for a big horse, giving the distinct impression that he’ll relish the extra distance of a mile and a half as he galloped home.
He’ll settle better in a good race, so the Derby comes into play with that in mind, and there are three weeks to Epsom given how the calendar has fallen this year, so he has plenty of time to recover.
Lucarno was fourth in the 2007 Derby on the back of winning this race when there was just a week between the two, while Thought Worthy was also fourth at Epsom on the back of winning this contest in 2012 when there was a fortnight gap.
Ed Dunlop has a good one – a good one named after his father – and given how he gloriously campaigned Ouija Board, Red Cadeaux and Snow Fairy, these are exciting times for the Newmarket handler.
4. Bay bridges the gap to group assignments
You can’t name a better handicap at producing group horses than the BetVictor London Gold Cup – Green Moon, Al Kazeem, Thomas Chippendale, Hillstar, Cannock Chase, Time Test, Defoe, Communique and Headman prove that – and it’s only gone and delivered again.
Sir Michael Stoute trained two of the above list and he primed Saturday’s winner BAY BRIDGE to perfection, getting him in here off a mark of 90 just as he was hitting the middle of a fierce upward curve.
When he won at Newcastle on April 7 he was keen but outclassed them and he settled much better in this much better race, allowing Ryan Moore to ride him with confidence as he picked which horses to follow in the straight.
The only nervy moment for backers came when he momentarily looked like he might be penned in by Greystoke and Dejame Paso, but Moore shoved him through the gap and he took off when in the clear, storming home by four lengths in the style of a group horse.
He’s in the Group Two King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race his trainer won with Hillstar who was odds-on but only second in this contest, and that sort of level looks the obvious next step for this exciting son of New Bay.
5. Woke win for Eve's Jumby?
Talking of which, JUMBY, another son of New Bay, was excellent over at Newmarket in the Heed Your Hunch At Betway Handicap for Eve Johnson Houghton.
He might have only won by three-quarters-of-a-length but the front two pulled clear in relative terms and the winner was giving the runner-up, Jadwal, a stone.
The form of his Newmarket third at the Craven meeting was franked by the winner, Creative Force, earlier in the day and, considering his breeding and the fact he was campaigned over seven furlongs and a mile at two, this horse is showing impressive speed this season.
Commonwealth Cup quotes filtered through afterwards and he’s as short as 12/1 for that race now, but his trainer mentioned the Wokingham in the aftermath of Saturday’s win and that could be a better option.
He shapes like he’d travel away nicely in a big-field handicap and that race could well draw his extra stamina into play, while he’s likely to be rated in the low 100s after this which should see him sneak in towards the bottom of the weights.
It’s tough for three-year-olds to get in the Wokingham so not many have tried in recent years, with Danetime (second in 1997), Doctor Spin (fourth in 1999), Strahan (third in 2000) and Glass Office (fifth in 2013) doing the best of the Classic generation from only 14 representatives in the last 25 years.
It won’t be easy, but Jumby looks a good one and it could be worth giving him a crack at the prestigious Royal Ascot handicap.
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing columnists
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of responsible gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, or visit begambleaware.org.
Further support and information can be found at GamCare and gamblingtherapy.org.
Next Off
Most Followed
MOST READ RACING
