John Ingles of Timeform provides an overview of the key things to note this Saturday.
Three points of interest
Regional can fare best of Group 1 winners in Hackwood Stakes
Newbury’s Hackwood Stakes (14:57) might be a Group 3 contest but among the dozen runners are a trio who have won Group 1 sprints in recent seasons, as well as last year’s winner Elite Status who has cheekpieces fitted after some lesser efforts since his win twelve months ago.
Kind of Blue looked set for more top sprinting honours this season when signing off with a win in the Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot last year but has only beaten one rival from two starts in Group 3 company this term and is on a retrieval mission. Senior runner Khaadem showed he still has plenty of dash when winning the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes for the second year running last year, at the age of eight, though he makes a belated reappearance after finishing second in a Grade 2 contest in America last September.
But there are no concerns about the current form of the other former Group 1 winner in the field, Regional. He landed the Sprint Cup at Haydock on his final start in 2023, and while he hasn’t won since, he has made the frame in all his starts in the last couple of seasons when sparingly campaigned by Ed Bethell. Effective at both five and six furlongs, he was placed for the second year running in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot last time and ran creditably when beaten just over a length into third behind American Affair.
Rated just a pound behind Kind of Blue who has questions to answer, Regional has major claims and can better his fourth place in this race a year ago.
British pair look best in Sapphire Stakes
Oaks winner Minnie Hauk looks to have a straightforward task in her bid to follow up in the Irish Oaks, but earlier on the Curragh card, the five-furlong Sapphire Stakes (15:05) looks a bit more competitive. British-trained sprinters have a good record in the Group 2 contest, with Art Power and Believing in the last couple of years being the most recent successful visitors. Commonwealth Cup runner-up Arizona Blaze looks to have the strongest claims among the home team this year, but he faces a couple of smart older sprinters from Britain in Rumstar and Mgheera.
Mgheera has done well since joining Ed Walker from France earlier this year, winning a Group 3 contest on her stable debut at Longchamp and then following up in the Temple Stakes at Haydock where subsequent King Charles III Stakes winner American Affair, Rumstar and another who reopposes here, Irish filly Grandes Marques, were among those who finished further behind. All set to run in the King Charles III herself, Mgheera had to be withdrawn at the start after pulling off a shoe.
Jonathan Portman’s Rumstar had excuses in the King Charles III where he led the unfavoured far-side group, but he has since bounced back to the form which won him the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket earlier in the season. That was in the Sprint Stakes at Sandown a fortnight ago where he stayed on to lead in the final fifty yards. A line through the runner-up, who had also finished second to Mgheera in the Temple Stakes, suggests Rumstar can lead home a one-two ahead Ed Walker’s mare this time.
Spirited Style full of potential in listed contest
Three-year-olds have won six of the last eight renewals of the listed Aphrodite Stakes (16:55) at Newmarket over a mile and a half and a couple of the classic generation stand out in this year’s renewal. Understudy was sent off at 40/1 for the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot on just her third start but excelled herself upped markedly in grade when finding only Ballydoyle filly Garden of Eden too good, relishing the emphasis on stamina in a strongly-run race. She sets the standard on that effort down in grade.
On the other hand, this is a step up in class for Godolphin filly Spirited Style but she has shown bags of potential in lesser company and can provide ‘Hot Trainer’ Charlie Appleby with his second winner of this contest, three years after Eternal Pearl.
Having shaped well but looking to need the experience when runner-up on her debut at Ascot in May, Spirited Style confirmed debut promise in another fillies’ maiden at Haydock later in the month, drawing clear in the final furlong to win by three and a half lengths.
As well as the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag, Spirited Style earned the ‘large P’ symbol on her rating indicating she’s expected to improve considerably from that run. By Sea The Stars out of the same connections’ Oaks runner-up Wild Illusion, Spirited Style has a smart mile and a half pedigree and can take the step up in grade in her stride.
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