Gosdens Considering Quartet For Doncaster’s St Leger

John and Thady Gosden could have as many as four runners, led by G2 Queen's Vase hero Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}), in the Sept. 16 G1 Betfred St Leger at Doncaster next Saturday.

The Wathnan Racing colourbearer was most recently third to St Leger rival Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York last month. He will be partnered by the retiring Frankie Dettori, who has already won the Classic six times including twice for Gosden with Shantou (Alleged) in 1996 and Logician (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in 2019.

“He came out of the race at York in very good order,” said the elder Gosden, who has already won five editions of the British Classic. “If the weather is set fair at Doncaster that won't bother him with it being top of the ground. I have had some luck going from the Voltigeur to the St Leger, but I often feel it is quite close if they have had a hard race and I have had a couple bounce, that can happen. I'm very pleased with him at this stage, he seems in great order and very content in himself.

“He's got a great mind and he is a pretty laid-back character. I trained both the mother and father and he's inherited all their good traits of their mental attitude towards racing. I think he'll enjoy the distance. We are perfectly aware it looks like being a vintage St Leger.”

Qatar Racing's Middle Earth (GB) (Roaring Lion), a winner of the Melrose H., will need to be supplemented to run, while Anthony Oppenheimer's stakes-placed homebred Lion's Pride (GB), another by the late Tweenhills stallion, is also a St Leger prospect. The final member of the quartet is Juddmonte's one-time G1 Betfred Derby favourite Arrest (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), who won the G3 Geoffrey Freer S. in August, however the colt is ground dependent.

“Middle Earth ran a lovely race in the Melrose and I'm really happy with him,” said Gosden. “He has a very strong likelihood, all being well with his bloods and scopes, to be supplemented. Qatar Racing have won the race before and I think they are game to go.

“We're very pleased with Arrest, he took his race very well at Newbury. He's in top order but I think if it's good-to-firm at Doncaster I think you'll find him heading to Paris for the [G2] Prix Chaudenay rather than Doncaster. He's a lovely horse but he rolls his knee and he'll enjoy more what I call the autumn ground.”

Of Lion's Pride Gosden added, “I think there's a likelihood he will run in the race as well, after all there's only one St Leger. His sire was the last horse off the bridle in Masar (Ire)'s Derby but he didn't get the mile-and-a-half. This boy is out of a good source of stamina on the dam's side.”

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Frankel’s Arrest Makes All In Geoffrey Freer Test

Juddmonte's G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud runner-up Arrest (Ire) (Frankel {GB}–Nisriyna {Ire}, by Intikhab) had failed to build upon a wide-margin triumph in May's G3 Chester Vase, but regained the winning thread and punched his ticket to next month's G1 St Leger with a pillar-to-post victory in Saturday's G3 BetVictor Geoffrey Freer S at Newbury.

Remaining out wide lobbing along on the lead before taking the shortest route around the sweeping home turn, the 5-6 favourite was shaken up in the centre of the track with three furlongs remaining and maintained a high tempo inside the final quarter-mile to easily withstand the late threat of Ching Shih (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) by a geared-down 1 1/2 lengths. Roger Varian trainee Shandoz (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) fared best of the remainder and finished six lengths adrift in third.

The G1 Derby 10th and G2 King Edward VII S. fifth becomes a record-breaking fifth winner of the contest for Frankie Dettori and a first for the Gosden stable since Presenting (GB) (Mtoto {GB}) obliged in 1995.

“Everyone expected the ground to be a bog, but it's good-to-soft, and he was the Derby favourite so he had to do that,” said Dettori. “He's one card for the St Leger, but let's see how Gregory gets on next Wednesday [in the G2 Great Voltigeur]. He's one of a bunch of top horses John [Gosden] is sending to York, it's a very strong team and I can't wait. Soft ground is not an issue with him and if it's soft at Doncaster it would be fine.”

 

Pedigree Notes
Arrest is the seventh of nine foals and one of six scorers from as many runners out of an unraced half-sister to MGSW G1 Nassau S. and G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud placegetter Narniyn (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and multiple stakes winner Temerity (Ind) (Intense Focus). The April-foaled bay is a half-brother to GSW G1 Hong Kong Gold Cup third Dinozzo (Ire) (Lilbourne Lad {Ire}), Listed Rous S. third Spring Loaded (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}), a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett (GB) and a weanling colt by Dark Angel (Ire). Descendants of his third dam Noufiyla (Ire) (Top Ville {Ire}) include MGSW G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup runner-up Maiden Tower (GB) (Groom Dancer) and G1 Prix Marcel Boussac third Copperbeech (Ire) (Red Ransom).

Saturday, Newbury, Britain
BETVICTOR GEOFFREY FREER S.-G3, £70,000, Newbury, 8-19, 3yo/up, 13f 61yT, 2:53.79, g/s.
1–ARREST (IRE), 127, c, 3, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Nisriyna (Ire), by Intikhab
2nd Dam: Narmina (Ire), by Alhaarth (Ire)
3rd Dam: Noufiyla (Ire), by Top Ville (Ire)
(€440,000 Wlg '20 GOFNOV). O-Juddmonte; B-Swordlestown Little (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. £39,697. Lifetime Record: G1SP-Fr, 8-4-1-1, $216,481. *1/2 to Dinozzo (Ire) (Lilbourne Lad {Ire}), GSW & G1SP-HK, $1,509,980; and Spring Loaded (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}), SP-Eng, $300,332. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Ching Shih (Ire), 130, f, 4, Lope De Vega (Ire)–Madame Chiang (GB), by Archipenko. O/B-Kirsten Rausing (IRE); T-David Simcock. £15,050.
3–Shandoz (GB), 133, g, 6, Golden Horn (GB)–Shabyt (GB), by Sadler's Wells. 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. O-Nurlan Bizakov; B-Hesmonds Stud Ltd (GB); T-Roger Varian. £7,532.
Margins: 1HF, 6, 2. Odds: 0.83, 20.00, 12.00.
Also Ran: Luisa Casati (Ire), Kemari (GB), Jack Darcy (Ire), Klondike (GB). Scratched: Enemy (GB).

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Epsom: Can Auguste Rodin Bounce Back In The Derby?

   For once in these days of volatile climate, the sun is shining on the Surrey Downs and all the righteous colts assembled for the latest G1 Betfred Derby. Lester Piggott, who is commemorated by one of the card's handicaps carrying his name, was always refererred to patronisingly as the “housewife's choice” in the Blue Riband thanks largely to his association with Ballydoyle. Rosegreen's sacred establishment continues to support this mile-and-a-half Classic like a pillar of iron and 2023's chosen one is Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), whose attempt at Nijinsky's Triple Crown came to an abrupt halt in the 2000 Guineas. Of all the Longfellow's Derby winners, none had to conjure a magic-trick turnaround of this nature so Saturday's race carries that bit of extra intrigue.

What Auguste Rodin lacks in last-time-out form, he makes up for with a mix of reputation and juvenile achievement representing the trainer who has continually bent the accepted perceived knowledge of what is possible in this sport. After all, this is the stable that engineered a Slip Anchor-style Derby win out of Serpentine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a colt who had begun his career with a 16-length 10th of 11 in a Galway maiden. Auguste Rodin, the “special” one as far as all closest to him are concerned, has to go and do it himself now with O'Brien summing it up this week. “The Derby is the race where all the horses come together and then you find out, that's the way it is every year,” he said.

Passing It Down; Is Frankel The New Derby Sire Sensation?

In one of the last Classic face-offs between Galileo and Frankel, the latter looks to have a distinct edge in his bid to cement his position as the next go-to sire in this great race. Galileo's unbeaten son Artistic Star (Ire) hails not from Ballydoyle but from the Ralph Beckett stable and is a big outsider with experience in short supply, while Juddmonte's great supplies Frankie's grand finale Arrest (Ire) and more intriguingly also a sleight of hand two years on from his first winner Adayar (Ire). Unexpectedly, that emphatic Derby hero's full-brother Military Order (Ire) comes here with perhaps stronger credentials having won the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial his 5-year-old sibling surrendered en route. When Arthur Budgett's Oaks runner-up Windmill Girl produced two Derby winners in Blakeney and Morston there was a thought that it might not happen again, such is the implausibility of such an outcome, but we are potentially here again.

The 1969 and 1973 winners were half-brothers, so Anna Salai (Dubawi {Ire}) will be providing the race and her breeding operation with something unique if it again plays out right for the boys in blue on Saturday. Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby said today he is happy with the draw allocated to Military Order as he bids to saddle his third Betfred Derby winner. “He is always going to be going there with the tag as being a Derby winner's full-brother, so everyone is going to ask the questions of 'is he as good?' and 'where does he stand compared to him?' but he looks as though he is physically potentially more there and mentally more there than Adayar at this stage of his career,” Charlie Appleby said. “Regardless of that, Adayar went and won a Derby and this lad has got to go and do it now.”

Prepare For The Ride

Richard Kingscote has the chance to emulate “King Kieren” Fallon, the last jockey to win back-to-back Derbys in 2003 and 2004, on Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) who carries Workforce-like vibes into this for the Niarchos Family so far denied a Derby triumph. Sir Michael Stoute's assistant James Savage was tellingly not averse to comparing the homebred with last year's winner. “Desert Crown and Passenger are different in many ways, but one thing they are similar in is that they are both clever horses that learnt very quickly,” he said. Like the 1993 hero Commander in Chief, he only appeared for the first time at Newmarket's Craven meeting, where King Power's The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) was running second in the signature race before their subsequent coming together in York's Dante.

An Instant Impression?

Surprisingly, given the intensely competitive nature of the Derby, both Geoff Wragg in 1983 and Roger Charlton in 1990 managed to win it in their first season training with Teenoso and Quest For Fame, respectively. Charlie Johnston is attempting the feat this time with a duo including the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero Dubai Mile (Ire) (Roaring Lion), who has the edge over the Chester Vase one-two Arrest and Adelaide River (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and very much over Auguste Rodin having finished 17 lengths ahead of that peer in the Guineas.

Sporting the colours of “Mr Derby” Ahmad Al Shaikh, whose outsiders Khalifa Sat (Ire) (Free Eagle {Ire}) and Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) were second in 2020 and 2022, Dubai Mile's Derby success could well have been prophesied by his owner after greeting Hoo Ya Mal. “Next year!” he had said, so no pressure there then Charlie. “He looks great and it is all systems go,” the son of Middleham legend Mark, who fared no better than second in all his tries in the Derby. “The track as we know is a variable that will be an unknown until he has tackled it, but the trip is very much viewed as a positive.”

Click here to view the TDN's Derby Special Edition.

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Auguste Rodin Heads Betfred Derby 14, Marhaba Ya Sanafi One Of Prix du Jockey Club 11

Following a draw conducted live in Epsom's hallowed circle, a final field of 14 has been confirmed for Saturday's G1 Betfred Derby. Ballydoyle number one Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) has pulled “lucky” stall 10, still the most beneficial draw in Derby history having housed Shahrastani, Reference Point (GB), Nashwan, Quest For Fame (GB), Generous (Ire), Galileo (Ire), Sir Percy (GB), Ruler of the World (Ire) and Masar (Ire). Chief market rival Military Order (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) will exit from next door in nine, while leading contenders Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) and White Birch (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}) have drawn boxes seven and two respectively.

Meanwhile, in France, a final field of 11 has been declared for Sunday's €1,500,000 G1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly. The cast is headed by Jaber Abdullah's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}), who has drawn post four. TDN Rising Star and supplementary entry Feed The Flame (GB) (Kingman {GB}) has been allocated stall six. There was good news for connections of likely favourite Big Rock (Fr) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), with Yeguada Centurion's homebred sensation drawn in two.

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