Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy is the final Group 1 of the British flat season and Foundation was cut from 5/4 to 11/10 at BetVictor yesterday to land the Doncaster feature. It would be fitting if the prize went to the John Gosden/Frankie Dettori combination who have had such a magnificent season although we also saw a nibble for Mengli Khan (9s from 12) who looked such an exciting colt when winning a Nottingham maiden on his second start for Hugo Palmer.
A Bumper eight-race card from Newmarket this afternoon with the first seven events all confined to juveniles. In the first division of the 7f maiden for colts’ Colour Me Happy has finished runner up on all three starts and deserves to get his head in front but Tigerwolf (2.35) left his debut running behind when fourth in a valuable Sales’ race over today’s C&D earlier in the month and a repetition of that effort would make him hard to beat.
A number of big yards are represented with well bread newcomers and the Dutch Art colt Sommersun cost no less than 340,000gns as a yearling. The market should provide valuable clues as to the ability of the debutants and there will be a number of future winners come out of the race.
Similarly it will take a very good colt to beat Mootaharer (3.10) first time out given how well the selection performed on debut. Slowly away the Charlie Hills’ juvenile didn’t get the best of runs at Salisbury but looked a winner-in-waiting when a never nearer second. Sautter and Poet’s Word look the best of the newcomers in another informative contest.
John Gosden won the Conditions Stakes last season and his Hayadh, arguably, sets the standard but he has refused to settle on his last couple of starts and I am going to take a chance with the once-raced Knife Edge (3.45) who created such a favourable impression when scoring at Ascot on debut and has the scope to make up into a decent three-year-old.
The Nursery over 1m 1f looks a cracker and it was won by multiple Group One winner Main Sequence back in 2011; I know connections feel Walsingham Grange is better than he has shown on the track so far but I think Nice Future (4.55) is well named and won despite the Epsom undulations last time. He is hardly thrown in on the face of that success, but his debut third at Newbury on ground softer than ideal suggests he may be up to winning off an opening mark of 79.
At Worcester I thought Skylander (2.15) bumped into one at Uttoxeter last week courtesy of Junction Fourteen who looked a novice chaser to follow at the Staffordshire track. The David Pipe trained runner lost nothing in defeat and can take advantage of the 6lbs he receives from Doctor Phoenix, a winning point-to-pointer and dual winning hurdler, who makes his chase debut for David Dennis.
I’m looking forward to seeing the chase debut of Calipto (3.00) at Fontwell in a race champion trainer Paul Nicholls has saddled the winner for the last couple of years. The selection has always had the look of a better chaser than hurdler and it will be disappointing if he doesn’t make a winning debut over the larger obstacles.
I’m also sweet on the chances of Fergal Mael Duin (4.10) who ran a cracker on his seasonal reappearance and chase debut at Plumpton last October and has bits of form over timber and fences that suggest he could be very well treated off his current mark.
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