Tag: Circle Of Fire (GB)

Lingfield Offers Epsom Clues

   Sandwiched in between the Derby and Oaks trials of Chester and York, Lingfield stages its own prep races for both Epsom Classics on Saturday before Classic action unfolds again in France on Sunday. It was only four years ago that Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Anapurna (GB) (Frankel {GB}) revived the Listed Derby and Oaks Trials by doubling up on the first Friday and Saturday in June and with the major yards represented close inspection is required.

In the Derby Trial, the two colts who went to post for the Listed Newmarket S. just eight days ago, Circle Of Fire (GB) (Almanzor {Fr}) and Waipiro (Ire) (Australia {GB}), venture forth again to try and squeeze into what could be an open contest next month.     While Waipiro was unable to take part at Newmarket after Tom Marquand was kicked, The King and Queen Consort's Circle Of Fire showed up with promise in the 10-furlong contest and it is notable that he is backing up uncharacteristically for a Sir Michael Stoute charge. Obviously connections are still harbouring an outside dream of the Royal colours being carried at Epsom, while Waipiro's trainer Ed Walker could be about to relive the buzz that his 2020 Lingfield Derby Trial winner English King (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) provided.

“The tight nature of this track I don't think will suit many Derby-type horses, but he's a well-balanced horse and I would rather run on the all-weather than heavy ground,” he said. “We don't have a heap of mile-and-a-half horses to compare him to, so we need to compare them to other peoples. So we go there knowing as much as you do really.”

 

One For Inquiring Minds

If ever a son of Kingman (GB) was going to have a genuine Derby contender, it would be in the mould of Anthony Oppenheimer's Inquiring Minds (GB) whose dam Precious Ramotswe (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) was successful in the 14-furlong G3 Bronte Cup. Impressive on his 10-furlong debut at Newcastle 11 days prior to this test, the John and Thady Gosden trainee is another who is being sent back into action unusually quickly for a stable renowned for patience. “This will tell us what kind of standard he is,” Oppenheimer said of the homebred, who bids to provide the stable with its first winner of this since Percussionist (Ire) in 2004. “The King Edward is the sort of race one thinks he might enjoy–I would think he will be more suited to Ascot. I think he is quite useful, but I don't think he's number one in the stable, so I don't think we can expect too much.”

 

A Valid Point?

With the switch to the Polytrack for the two Classic trials, it may be that proven form on the surface counts for a lot. For all the proven class of Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's TDN Rising Star and G1 Fillies' Mile third Bright Diamond (Ire) (El Kabeir) and Ballydoyle's G3 Prix Penelope third Be Happy (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), Godolphin's pair Eternal Hope (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and Sunset Point (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) have won at Chelmsford and at this track respectively. The latter, who scored by seven lengths on her 3-year-old bow in a Windsor handicap last month, is a daughter of Hidden Gold (Ire) (Shamardal) who captured the Listed River Eden Fillies' S. over this track and surface and who hails from the ultimate Epsom family of Galileo (Ire), Sea The Stars (Ire) and Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}). “Both don't look out of place in the field and this should give us a gauge for their future,” trainer Charlie Appleby said.

 

Draws Made For Poulains and Pouliches

ParisLongchamp's G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains and G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Pouliches took their final shape on Friday, with manageable fields of 10 for both negating the worst effects of the draw. On that front, there was good news for Wathnan Racing as their high-profile acquisition Isaac Shelby (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) is in stall one for the colts' Classic next to Malcolm Parrish's likely favourite American Flag (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). Aidan O'Brien is to be represented only by 'TDN Rising Star' Hans Andersen (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who breaks from stall six which is also the draw handed to the stable's sole Pouliches representative Never Ending Story (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

 

Inside Post For Blue

Yeguada Centurion SL's G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and G3 Prix de la Grotte scorer Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) was handed stall one for the Pouliches, with Jean-Claude Seroul, Haras d'Etreham and Riviera Equine's Ritournelle (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) next door in two. While Blue Rose Cen should be sent forward from that favourable draw, Ritournelle who was beaten a head by Showay (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) in the G3 Prix Imprudence at Deauville will be arriving late on her return to a mile. “I did regret not running her in the 1000 Guineas, given that the ground at Newmarket was riding soft and because she loves a straight course,” trainer Jerome Reynier admitted. “Ritournelle has done nothing but improve with each race, her preparation has gone well and so we can go to into the race calmly and confidently.”

 

Can Rouget Turn It Around?

This season has hardly gone to plan for Jean-Claude Rouget, with most of the Classic trials for once passing him by, but in The Aga Khan's Valimi (Fr) (Teofilo {Ire}) and White Birch Farm's Kubrick (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) he has two live Poulains contenders. Valimi, who took April's course-and-distance Prix Machado conditions event, has the GI Breeders' Cup Mile hero Val Royal (Fr) in his pedigree while Kubrick's half-brother Raging Bull (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) has two top-level successes to his name at the trip. “Valimi and Kubrick did their final serious pieces of work on the grass at Deauville racecourse on Tuesday–the ground was very soft and they were not visibly inconvenienced by it,” Rouget said. “Both were giving me concern in this respect beforehand, especially Kubrick. He made a good return [when fourth] in the Prix Djebel and I was satisfied with his performance. Valimi improved for his return effort at Saint-Cloud and very quickly set the record straight last time.”

 

Testing Ground For Sunday

Charles de Cordon, who has the task of preparing the track at ParisLongchamp, is expecting the mile Classics to be stamina tests. “It has rained a lot in the Parisian region during the first part of the week, but the track has been drying out,” he said. “We expect the ground to ride very soft on Sunday and anticipate a penetrometer reading of around 3.9. There will be a 10-metre strip of fresh ground and the open-stretch, five metres out from the running rail, will also come into play.”

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Heady Action Gets Underway at Newmarket

   Heading into a weekend when celebration is the keyword in Britain, Newmarket's three-day QIPCO Guineas Festival begins on Friday with some action designed to build the intensity towards the main events. Fittingly, the fixture's opener is the Listed Newmarket S., the race once used by the Derby-winning icons Shirley Heights (GB) and Slip Anchor (GB) and this year hosting one of The King and Queen Consort's outside squeaks at a blue riband runner in Circle Of Fire (GB) (Almanzor {Fr}). Just a Salisbury novice winner at present, the colt bred by The Queen who derives from Juddmonte royalry has that additional edge of being with Sir Michael Stoute, who proved in 2022 that the art of expertise and longstanding experience still counts for plenty in the kiln of modern-day racing.

What Next For Waipiro?
   Another unexposed colt in the Newmarket S. is the Ed Walker-trained Waipiro (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who looked so assured over this 10-furlong trip and track at the Craven meeting. A half-brother to the Hong Kong star Waikuku (Ire) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), the bay promises to spark pre-Derby excitement at the Upper Lambourn set-up much as English King (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) did three years ago. “We want to find out sooner or later if he is a horse who could be lining up at Epsom, so really he needs to be winning this in order to do so,” Walker said. “He's got to take another step forwards, he took a big step forwards from his debut and he's got to take another tomorrow.”

Another Hurricane Season In The Offing?
Even if the Newmarket S. does not host a genuine Derby colt, five races in there is the chance to witness one who has already traversed that particular terrain in Hurricane Lane (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). Clearly, the horse who failed to beat a rival in Newbury's G3 John Porter S. is a shadow of the one who bounded out of Epsom's Blue Riband two years ago and completed a not-inconsequential treble of Irish Derby, Grand Prix de Paris and St Leger and went close in an Arc. Will cheekpieces focus that racing mind to tune back in with the outstanding physicality? The G2 Jockey Club S., one of Newmarket's most consistently uncompetitive yet undeniably intriguing annual happenings, will tell us.

Charlie Appleby has come to use the two racecourses of the town's Heathland almost as his private domain in recent years and this is another big afternoon, especially with Godolphin's champion 2-year-old of 2021 and G1 Irish 2000 Guineas hero Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) also in action in the G2 bet365 Mile. Switched from the flooded Sandown and much-changed in make-up from the version that was due to take place a week previously, it is one of two races saved from that fixture and now an ideal launchpad for the colt who looked to have the world at his feet as he went to post for the Saturday Classic 12 months ago. With a pair of colts engaged in the Newmarket S. and the course-and-distance conditions winner Majestic Pride (GB) (Shamardal) in the seven-furlong Listed King Charles II S., this is very much another day at the office for Moulton Paddocks but there is certainly no contempt in this familiarity with this verdant landscape perfectly complemented by the army in royal blue livery.

Ballydoyle Big Guns Drawn Together In Guineas Poser
   As the confirmations for Saturday's G1 Qipco 2000 Guineas were unveiled on Thursday morning, Aidan O'Brien made the only scratching of the race as he took out Cairo (Ire) (Quality Road) but more importantly affirmed that there would be no ducking out of an encounter between two of the most talented colts to have raced for the stable in recent times. While the destinies of the TDN Rising Stars Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never) are certain to play out independently of the other after the mile Classic, this is where they will both begin their keenly-anticipated second-season odysseys and by an act of strange fortune they were positioned alongside each other in stalls 12 and 13 respectively.

As expected, Ryan Moore has picked the potentially “special” one who comes back to England having fired his salvo the G1 Futurity Trophy in the autumn, while Wayne Lordan takes his longstanding behind-closed-doors link-up with the brilliant 2-year-old master of 2022 Little Big Bear into the open for the first time. Following The King's momentous Coronation on Saturday, talk of Crowning in this sphere will evolve around the lore of Britain's Triple, not achieved by a colt since Nijinsky in 1970. It was notable how enthusiastic O'Brien was for Auguste Rodin's prospects of this daunting feat in his Great British Racing press conference this week.
“Obviously the Triple Crown is a very hard thing to do, but sometime it would be great to do it,” he said of the colt whose pull is so potent it meant that Ryan Moore was remarkably deserted a champion 2-year-old who would have been hot property in most of the preceding renewals. “It is a difficult type of horse to find, because they have to have a lot of class and they have to have pace enough to run in the Guineas. It is really class that those horses have to have. It's pure class and class gives them stamina and gives them speed. We just thought that, at the moment, he fits into that bracket really well.”

What Effect The Draw?
Quite where Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear sit if the race becomes tactical, as it can on the Rowley Mile, remains to be seen and an unclear weather forecast leading up to Saturday does invite the possibility of watering and the prospect of favoured patches of ground. Twelve months ago, much was made of the meeting's bias toward low numbers with Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) upstaging Native Trail as they came from opposite ends of the draw on good ground. There is also the question of where the early pace lies, with Juddmonte's G1 Dewhurst S. hero Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) who was so comfortable from the front at two being draw in stall three and Ahmad Al Shaikh's G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Dubai Mile (Ire) (Roaring Lion) certain to help force the pace in six.
This is a tough Guineas to predict in terms of tactics, but as far as providing a level playing field it is Clerk of the Course Michael Prosser who has the responsibility. “We have just lightly watered the final eight furlongs, which is the quickest part of the course,” he said in his update at noon on Thursday. “The forecast has changed, basically. At this time yesterday, we were forecast rain first thing in the morning and obviously into the afternoon, so that forecast now advises those showers will be coming later. We have put down 4mm to maintain the position. The final eight furlongs is all but done.”

“Even the Saturday forecast has changed and the volumes don't look as significant, although there is a more organised band of rain coming through mid-morning Saturday through to lunchtime,” he added. “What we're being told this morning is that there might be a dry interlude during racing, which will be really helpful if that is how it unfolded.”

Buick Opts For Silver Over Style…
With memories of 12 months ago fresh in the mind, William Buick has had another difficult choice to make in the 2000 Guineas as he bids to atone for missing out on Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). While the lure of the unbeaten TDN Rising Star and G2 Gimcrack S. winner Noble Style (GB) (Kingman {GB}) is obvious, he has stuck with the G3 Solario S. and G3 Autumn S. winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up Silver Knott (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who will part from the middle stall in seven. “Noble Style is a Gimcrack winner and unbeaten, so he's a high-class horse too, but he's stepping up two furlongs to a mile,” he told QIPCO British Champions Series as he justified his choice of the colt already proven at the trip.

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