Lessons learned from Royal Ascot
Royal Ascot is meeting where so many questions are answered. Our writers look at some of them now the great five days has drawn to a close.
Golden opportunity for Classic crop
The picture involving the milers should become clearer after Royal Ascot but instead the first three days in glorious Berkshire sunshine only served to further the muddy the waters.
Then came Alpha Centauri. She took her form - and that of this 2018 division in general - to a new level with a rout of the Coronation Stakes field. She bounced off the fast ground, travelled strongly behind a good pace and sauntered clear to win in the manner of a special talent.
Given the weight and sex allowances she'll get moving forward, here is a filly who could teach the boys a thing or two at all the major forthcoming dances.
If there was any clarity elsewhere it was that the older horses this time around are much of a muchness.
Hats off to Ascot specialist Accidental Agent and his excellent connections for landing the Queen Anne in a three-way thriller but it’s hard to envisage him – let alone those close up namely Lord Glitters, Lightning Spear or Century Dream - cutting a swathe through the summer and autumn programme.
Following a similarly inconclusive race for the Lockinge at Newbury, the likes of the Sussex Stakes, Prix Jacques Le Marois and QEII look ripe for the Classic generation. Without Parole will clearly be a player having emerged from the St James’s Palace Stakes with his unbeaten record intact. He can be rated better than a half-length defeat of Gustav Klint having used his turn of foot to reel in US Navy Flag over two furlongs out before being closed down close home.
Wootton ran well in third despite traffic problems but will struggle to reverse form with the winner should they ever clash again and maybe the Jersey Stakes and the runaway win of Expert Eye is more significant. He looked the horse he threatened to be when winning the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood – clearly suited by the strong early pace.
He’s not in the July Cup (which would be an intriguing choice for his next start) or the Sussex and clearly needs to back this up when next seen. Wherever that is expect the Juddmonte battalion to have been raided for a pacemaker or two but there was the hint of brilliance in the Jersey that has been missing from most races in this division this term – Saxon Warrior in the 2000 Guineas notwithstanding. (David Ord)
Leger looks to take shape
On the subject of Classics, the Queen’s Vase has been the best Royal Ascot pointer for St Leger winners over the past 10 years and once again looks sure to have a significant impact on the final Classic of the campaign.
Thursday’s mile and three-quarter Group Two was won in tremendous style by Kew Gardens, having produced subsequent Leger winners Harbour Law (second, 2016), Leading Light (won, 2013) and Mastery (third, 2009) in the past decade.
Kew Gardens provided a first boost to the Investec Derby form, Aidan O’Brien’s Galileo colt having beaten just three home at Epsom on his previous start. He’d previously looked every inch a stayer in the making when failing to reel in the front-running Knight To Behold in the Lingfield Derby Trial.
Kew Gardens was given a patient ride but appeared to relish the move up to 14 furlongs and came home with any amount to spare.
It’s extremely hard to see any of the beaten horses improving sufficiently to reverse the form come Doncaster, though there was clear promise in the performance of John Gosden’s lightly-raced fourth Almoghared, who was having just his third start.
He’s a half-brother to Oaks heroine Taghrooda and while he doesn’t possess anything like her wicked turn of foot, he’s a typical Gosden Leger project and should be monitored closely in the coming weeks.
Kew Gardens, who beat Derby second Dee Ex Bee in the Flying Zetland Stakes last autumn, remains a couple of points bigger than Mark Johnston’s horse in the antepost market and the 7/1 looks sure to come under pressure.
The only other Royal Ascot race to have thrown up a couple of Leger winners in the past 10 years – half of the last 10 didn’t figure at all at the mid-summer spectacular – is the King Edward VII.
Gosden’s Arctic Cosmos was second in the ‘Ascot Derby’ in 2010 before prevailing on Town Moor, while the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Conduit found just one too good at Ascot a couple of years before him.
The King Edward didn’t look a particularly strong renewal but there was a good winner in Old Persian.
Charlie Appleby has the Derby winner in Masar and is bound to be looking towards more Classic joy with this son of Dubawi. He isn’t a guaranteed stayer but the mile and a half at Ascot looked to unlock more improvement and he’s an exciting candidate, with the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur potentially on the agenda before a Leger decision is made. (Matt Brocklebank)
Sky Bet St Leger Odds:
5 Dee Ex Bee, Kew Gardens
8 Forever Together
12 Hunting Horn
14 Old Persian, Saxon Warrior, Southern France
Cracksman has questions to answer
The bookies are puffing their chests out now when it comes to Cracksman. They almost got him beat at Epsom where he traded at 18.5 in-running on Betfair and he was beaten, at 2/5, in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
With his reputation taking a bit of a knock, he has something to prove. But I’m firmly of the opinion that fast ground over 10 furlongs is just about as far away from ideal as you’d want for him within his spectrum.
He’s never been a quick horse and you need a bit of speed to win a Group One on fast ground at Royal Ascot. Poet’s Word loved the ground – he’s unbeaten on Good to Firm – and he’s also better at 10 furlongs than he is at 1m4f.
Cracksman is a galloper, and though the best effort of his career came over 10 furlongs at Ascot the very soft ground on Champions Day, over that trip, was crucial.
Has he developed a lazy habit? Has he regressed in terms of ability? Or has circumstance just meant that he’s not been able to run to his true ability on his last couple of starts?
We shall see later in the season. It wouldn’t be the greatest surprise to see John Gosden reach for some headgear to address the first problem and if that does the trick the second point might well be a firm ‘no’.
At 7/2 for the King George and 7/1 for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the layers are dangling tempting prices. On his Champion Stakes form, they look big enough to me. Certainly, I’d expect to see the real Cracksman when he gets his ideal conditions later in the season.
I hope so, anyway. When he hit top gear on Champions Day it was a real thrill. It would be a shame if that was the peak for him.
His last two performances have left us asking questions and it is with hope, rather than expectation, that the son of Frankel can answer them when he really does have no excuses. (Ben Linfoot)
Calyx the King in waiting
Kingman's first crop were always going to attract plenty of attention given his own gorgeous pedigree - sired by Invincible Spirit and out of French Guineas winner Zenda - and the fabulous heights he himself reached on the racecourse.
A four-times Group One winner, Kingman's only defeat came when things went against him in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket but he duly set the record straight by dominating the mile division thereafter, defying heavy ground to win in Ireland before producing a jaw-dropping turn of foot to land the St James's Palace and Sussex Stakes.
It's fair to argue that had Kingman not arrived on the scene so soon after the mighty Frankel - another Juddmonte colt - he would have probably been regarded as one of the best of racehorses of our generation.
Make no mistake, this was a top-class animal and in Calyx, he looks to have provided us with another.
It is no surprise to see John Gosden, who trained Kingman beautifully, take care of Kingman's most precocious offspring so far and Calyx certainly looks the real deal.
Well backed prior to his Newmarket debut on the July Course, he put five and six lengths between himself and the second and third on that occasion before heading to Royal Ascot with a glowing reputation. Though up against strong field in a competitive renewal of the Coventry Stakes, he simply blitzed his rivals with sparkling display.
Having travelled with plenty of enthusiasm in the early exchanges, he took Frankie Dettori to the front inside the the final two furlongs with a turn of foot that quickly put matters to bed. Despite Advertise and Aidan's O'Brien's highly-regarded Sergei Prokofiev closing the gap late on, Dettori only had to push his charge out to complete a most-impressive victory.
With the aforementioned Sergei Prokofiev seemingly the best of what Ballydoyle have unleashed from their juvenile ranks so far this season, and Godolphin without a two-year-old winner at this year's Royal meeting, Calyx looks streetS ahead of anything else in this division at present.
Furthermore, if his father's exploits are anything to go by, Calyx won't just be a precocious two-year-old as he has the pedigree and physical attributes to suggest he is only going to get better. Already, he rates a serious contender for next season's 2000 Guineas. (Richard Mann)
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