The Irish Guineas, A Much -Hyped Juvenile - and Four Races Covered For Saturday

ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN

I have a new job (hoorah) writing about French racing and elsewhere, and having added that to all my other jobs time is not on my side – I am definitely too old for all this but if I want to travel the World watching horse racing sadly it does come at a cost! That’s my way of explaining another shortened article this week and having got too old age (so I am told, I still act like a teenager), there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

This week we saw a pair of awesome displays in Ireland with their 2000 and 1000 Guineas, and anyone who thinks this year’s crop of three-year-olds isn’t any good clearly needs their head examined. On Saturday, Colin Keane took over on Fields Of Gold for the Gosdens and boy was he impressive (the horse that is), taking the Irish colts classic by close to four lengths at the line. He was that much better than his rivals that I reckon I could have ridden him (I might put up some overweight though), and I cannot wait to see him take on his Newmarket conqueror (Ruling Court)  in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in what could be one of the races of the season. I was on runner-up Cosmic Year who ran a blinder on his first start at a mile, and I will be backing him wherever he goes next assuming he avoids the winner.

On Sunday, all the money was on Lake Victoria for the 1000 Guineas for fillies as she looked to bounce back from her English 1000 Guineas sixth, and she put these rivals to bed with ease, strolling home two and a quarter lengths clear of nearest rival California Dreamer, a 50/1 start at the off. Whether she was anywhere near 100% at Newmarket is a question many punters would like answered after doing their dough that day, but she made amends here, though the runner-up has either improved dramatically or the form already has a bit of a dodgy look about it for a Group One.  

Elsewhere on the card, everyone is raving about Albert Einstein, who landed odds of 4/11 when winning for the second time in the Group Three Marble Hill Stakes. Sat midfield for the majority of the race, he did quicken up nicely to go on and win by a length or so, but he needed to be hard ridden to get on top at the line and I won’t be taking any of the 11/10 for the Coventry Stakes until I see the final field.

Meanwhile, Aidan O’Brien surprised a few of us with his Derby plans, with Camille Pissarro the stable number one for the Prix du Jockey Club on Sunday afternoon (alongside Trinity College), and a trio of Delacroix, The Lion In Winter, and Lambourn all set for Epsom. Aidan reports he expects Ryan Moore to ride Delacroix after the son of Dubawi won the Derby Trial Stakes, leaving thousands of ante-post punters who made The Lion In Winter the favourite since last year when he was rated the top two-year-old. As you know I rarely if ever bet ante-post (lack of value being one concern) but this is more evidence that I am on the right lines – you can never be certain they will even run, let alone be the likeliest winner, though if the price is right and he has a decent jockey on board, he could still be an each way alternative.

On to the racing this weekend…

Saturday

Haydock 2.23pm

The Achilles Stakes over five furlongs will see the latest speedballs go to post for this Listed contest, worth over £31,000 to the winner and taken by the classy Believing last season for George Boughey, and by ten different trainers in the last decade, so no patterns to use there! Four and five year olds have won six of those runnings including all of the last four, but I am going against the grain with a three-year-old – madness, I know. Leovanni showed herself to be a sprinter of note last season with wins over this trip at Nottingham and Ascot before a third over a furlong further at York in the Group Two Lowther Stakes and a last of seven in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket behind Irish 1000 Guineas winner Lake Victoria. Dropped back in trip and down in class, if she is ready to go on her first start of the season then the 5/1 on offer as I write is just that bit too tempting as an each way bet to nothing.

Haydock 2.58pm

A mile and a half next for what used to be known as the Pinnacle Stakes, a decent group three contest that hasn’t seen a winner priced bigger than 7/1 in the last ten years. Newmarket yards have dominated in that time with William Haggas responsible for three winners, and the Gosden’s two. Both have representatives this season too with 12/1 chance Chorus and Shaha respectively. The daughter of Cracksman has had a win this season when winning the Daisy Warwick Stakes (Listed( at Goodwood easily enough, and if she goes on form that she can put her race fitness to good use to see off early favourite Estrange, who hasn’t been in action since winning at Doncaster last November.

York 3.15pm

Our longest race covered this Saturday with a mile and three quarters on ground expected to have plenty of cut in it likely to test the stamina of some of these to the full in a race restricted to fillies and mares. Terms Of Endearment is officially rated the best horse in the line-up for Willam Haggas and Tom Marquand and is a course and distance winner after taking this race last year, but I am having a Gosden kind of day – but not with 7/2 chance Sueno (Ryan Moore). I prefer the each way chances of Jane Temple at 10/1 or so, as the lightly raced daughter of Siyouni looks to follow up wins at Southwell and Kempton on the all-weather. She ran on really well last time out to score by two and a half lengths over the mile and a half under Benoit De La Sayette who keeps the ride this afternoon and although she needs to improve again in this field, who is to say we have already seen her at her peak?

Haydock 3.33pm

I have always felt that seven furlongs is a specialist distance – too far for most of the sprinters and too fast for some of the milers, so that makes the Group Three John Of Gaunt Stakes all the more interesting. Old favourite Kinross is looking for his tenth win over the trip and cannot be ignored, though at the age of eight, expecting him to be fit for his return for the season may be too big an ask. Audience doesn’t win as many races as he could with the odd off day, but at his peak he would stroll home alone here, so here’s hoping. The winner of the Group Two Lennox Stakes by four lengths at Goodwood last July, a repat of that form in this weaker race would see him home in front, though my bet size will be reduced accordingly as he is not the most reliable of horses.    

Sean’s Suggestion:

Leovanni each way 2.23pm Haydock Saturday