John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Thursday.
Three points of interest
Royal Ascot eyecatcher Best Secret can defy top weight
Goodwood’s opening contest, the Kincsem Handicap (13:20) over a mile and a quarter, looks a very good renewal of what is often one of the hottest three-year-old handicaps of the season and it will take a smart performance to win it off top weight, but Best Secret may well be up to the task judged on a run full of promise at Royal Ascot last time.
Best Secret would be a rare French winner of a handicap in Britain as he’s trained just across the Channel at Deauville by Stephane Wattel. One of his best horses was the very smart City Light who won the Sprint at the All-Weather Championships at Lingfield in 2018 before being beaten a short head in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Best Secret was himself placed at Royal Ascot last time, in the Golden Gates Stakes where he was beaten a length into third behind Quai de Bethune but was arguably unlucky not to lay down a serious challenge to the first two. Having been dropped out, he ran into trouble entering the straight and had to change course again over a furlong out when picking his way through the field, earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag in the process. Bought to join the Wathnan Racing squad after winning a handicap at Longchamp in April by three lengths, Best Secret remains capable of better and heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings.
Merchant ready to ply his trade in better company
The one who stands out among the seven colts in the Gordon Stakes (14:30) is Merchant for ‘Hot Trainer’ William Haggas and jockey Tom Marquand who won the same contest two years ago. That was with Desert Hero who successfully stepped up from handicap company after winning the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot. Merchant bids to do the same after winning the same race in the manner of a colt very much destined for pattern company.
The dominant winner of a handicap at York on his previous start, Merchant followed up with a smart performance from an 8 lb higher mark at Royal Ascot, still having plenty to pass approaching the final furlong but responding really well for pressure out wide and leading in the final fifty yards. While he had a length to spare at the line, sectional times pointed firmly to Merchant being value for a wider-margin success and the form soon received a major boost when runner-up Serious Contender finished second in the Irish Derby ten days later.
Merchant could have run in last Saturday’s King George, but this looks a gentler introduction to pattern company as he’s 5 lb clear of Irish Derby fifth Sir Dinadan in the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings, open to further improvement, and has the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag.
Whirl to get the better of See The Fire in Nassau clash
While Thursday’s Group 1, the Nassau Stakes (15:05), has attracted only five runners, a mouthwatering clash is in prospect between three-year-old Whirl for Aidan O’Brien and year-older filly See The Fire for Andrew Balding.
See The Fire was a 16/1 chance when failing by just a neck against O’Brien’s Opera Singer in last year’s Nassau but she’s entitled to a lot more respect this time judged on her last couple of starts. At York in May she ran away with the Middleton Fillies’ Stakes by a dozen lengths, putting the race to bed in a matter of strides. She faced stiffer opposition back against male rivals in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last time but emerged with plenty of credit in third behind Ombudsman and Anmaat.
However, See The Fire faces a very smart younger rival in Whirl in a race that has gone to a member of the classic generation in eight of the last ten years and was won for the fifth time by a Ballydoyle filly last year.
Like See The Fire, Whirl was also a convincing winner at York’s Dante meeting, in the Musidora Stakes, and while she found stablemate Minnie Hauk a neck too good in the Oaks, she gained a first Group 1 win in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh last time, making the running and rallying when headed briefly to beat See The Fire’s stablemate Kalpana who has since run very well in defeat in last Saturday’s King George. Rated a couple of pounds ahead of See The Fire on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and open to further improvement, Whirl can win again.
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