Tom Marquand believes Dubai Honour has what it takes to trouble market principals Paddington and Emily Upjohn in Saturday's Coral-Eclipse, with a field reduced to four following the news that Owen Burrows' rising star Anmaat will miss the race with a foot abscess.
Marquand bid farewell to a much-loved ally when his 2021 Coral-Eclipse runner-up Addeybb was retired at the end of last season with three Australian Group 1 wins under his belt, but Dubai Honour is shaping up to be the perfect replacement and has possibly been underestimated in betting for Saturday's Sandown Park Group 1, which is part of the 35-race QIPCO British Champions Series.
The William Haggas-trained 5-year-old had his stable-mate Addeybb four places behind him when runner-up to Sealiway in the 2021 QIPCO Champion Stakes but failed to win last year. Fortunately, Haggas and the team at Somerville Lodge kept faith with him and it has been rewarded already this year by wins in two of the Australian Group 1s which Addeybb won.
Marquand missed the first of those wins while recovering from a shoulder injury he incurred in a hideous fall at Randwick in February, but he was back on board for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes defeat of Australian legend Anamoe, as well as a subsequent third in Hong Kong, and he IS riding at the top of his form, as two recent Royal Ascot wins confirm.
He said: “Dubai Honour never got a clean run at anything last year, whether it was the way the race was run, the ground, or whatever, but he went down to Australia with a very similar profile to Addeybb as he was already on the cusp of being a Group 1 horse. He got his head in front in a Group 1 for the first time in the Ranvet, and then he won easily in the Queen Elizabeth.
“It really hurt missing the Ranvet, especially as the fall was caused by factors that had nothing to do with me. It's one thing when a fall is your own fault, but when it's taken out of your hands like that and it was tough. Proper tough.
“Normally if you get injured in February you wouldn't miss anything, but I missed the Ranvet by only a few days, getting back in five weeks when they had told me to expect eight weeks as an optimistic estimate. I missed another Group 1 as well as I'd also been booked to ride Artorius.”
He added: “Dubai Honour was exceptional in the Queen Elizabeth. We stuck a target on Anamoe, who had won nine Group 1s and looked the one to beat, and everything went to plan the whole way. Anamoe is a beast, and a champion in his own right, so it was no mean feat swinging by a horse like that at the furlong pole.
“Australia was Dubai Honour's new beginning as a Group 1 horse and we are looking forward to his first run back in a Group 1 on home turf. The stiff finish will suit him and it looks as if he might be better going right-handed. It's a tough race, but hopefully he can finish off with a bit of a rattle. And if he can't win this one, he's got nice options through the rest of the year.”
Jamie Spencer, partner of outsider in the field of four, West Wind Blows, has already won a Coral-Eclipse on David Junior in 2006. He appreciates that the Simon and Ed Crisford-trained 4-year-old needs to improve again, but he certainly won't be disgraced judged on his win in the Group 3 win in La Coupe at Longchamp on his first start since being gelded and a subsequent second to Pyledriver in a Hardwicke Stakes which was a Group 1 in all but name.
Spencer, who didn't ride him in La Coupe, said: “He won well in France and it was a good run last time. He's got a bit to find on the ratings in what looks a strong field, but he gets the trip well.
“I didn't intend to make the running at Ascot, and he was better in France when he got a lead, but he was drawn out wide and the pace went out of the race before Swinley Bottom so I let him coast to the front. We have the option of leading, but it would be ideal if somebody else wanted to go on.”
Reflecting on his win on David Junior, who beat a field which included Ouija Board and Notnowcato, he said: “I was very lucky to get on him as we'd already won the Champion Stakes and the Dubai Duty Free when we went for the Eclipse, which was a very good day.
“David Junior needed a fast pace and the tactics worked out well as Brian (Meehan) had bought a pacemaker for him. He took a bit of warming up in his races and he wasn't easy to train, so I don't think people appreciated at the time what a great job Brian did in getting it right in those top races.”
Paddington bids to give Aidan O'Brien a record seventh win in the Coral-Eclipse just six days after his landmark 100th European Classic win with Auguste Rodin in the Irish Derby. O'Brien, who currently shares the Eclipse record with Alec Taylor junior and Sir Michael Stoute, keeps pushing the frontiers and Paddington has strong claims if he stays the longer trip, despite having started the season in a handicap.
He looked good in the Irish 2000 Guineas and even better when beating the QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean impressively at Royal Ascot. In Siyouni, he has the same sire as O'Brien's 2021 Coral-Eclipse winner St Mark's Basilica.
Emily Upjohn, on whom William Buick takes the place of the suspended Frankie Dettori, has not raced over this sort of trip since her runaway win in last year's Musidora Stakes, but she is not short of speed, as she showed when displaying a smart change of gear to beat last year's Irish Derby winner Westover in last month's Coronation Cup.
Interestingly she has been declared to run without the hood she wore when impressing on QIPCO British Champions Day and again at Epsom last time.
Her trainer John Gosden, now in partnership with his son Thady, teamed up with Buick to win his first Coral-Eclipse with Nathaniel in 2012 and has since won the race with Golden Horn, Roaring Lion and Enable.
The post Returning Home After Two Group 1 Wins In Australia, Dubai Honour Could Post Upset In Coral-Eclipse appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
