DONN McCLEAN: It’s difficult to know where to start with British Champions Day. Almanzor v Found in the Champion Stakes? Minding v Ribchester in the QE2? Seventh Heaven? Order Of St George? Everywhere you look, there is a top class horse, a top class race.
There are certain races on the day in which the fancied horses generally do well. Since the inauguration of Champions Day five years ago, no winner of the QE2 has been sent off at greater odds than 11/2. (You can roll that record back another five years to the round track too.) Also, no winner of the Sprint has been allowed go off at greater than 7/1.
But there have been surprises in the Champion Stakes. Cirrus Des Aigles was a 12/1 shot in 2011. Fascinating Rock was a 10/1 shot last year. And in the Fillies & Mares Stakes (Madame Chiang 12/1, Seal Of Approval 16/1) and in the Long Distance Cup (Royal Diamond 20/1). It can still pay to look beyond the obvious.
Seventh Heaven is fairly obvious in the snappily-named Fillies & Mares Stakes. She looked very good when she won the Irish Oaks at The Curragh, and she looked even better last time when she won the Yorkshire Oaks. She beat her stable companion Found into second place that day, with Queen’s Trust and Pretty Perfect behind in third and fourth, and that form looks even stronger now than it did then since Found’s historic Arc win.
The worry about Seventh Heaven is the ground at Ascot. It is getting better, they changed it from good, good to soft in places, to good all over on Friday evening, and that is a positive for Aidan O’Brien’s filly. However, good all over in the middle of October just isn’t as good as the good all over that it was at The Curragh in the middle of July when she won the Irish Oaks.
The Galileo filly has raced on easy ground twice in her life: in a maiden at Leopardstown on her racecourse debut last year, and in the Epsom Oaks this year, and she finished, respectively, seventh and sixth. She is a different filly now to the filly who made her racecourse debut 13 months ago, and she probably didn’t handle Epsom’s contours in the Oaks, but easy ground is a potential negative, and she is short at around 3.0.
All types of ground seem to come alike to Journey, and she looks over-priced at around 9.0. John Gosden’s filly almost landed this race last year, but she was just mugged close home by Simple Verse. The pair of them had it between them from early in the home straight, and they finished nicely clear of their rivals.
The Dubawi filly has raced just three times this season. Third in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York’s Dante meeting on her seasonal return, she stayed on well to win the Group 3 Pinnacle Stakes at Haydock at the end of May over a mile and a half, and she stepped forward from that to win a listed race over a mile and a half at Newmarket last time.
She put up a really impressive performance that day. She travelled well in front from flagfall for Frankie Dettori, and she won with far more in hand than the three-length winning margin. That run should have put her spot on for today’s race, which has surely been her ultimate target for a while now, possibly since the start of the season.
Journey does like to get on with things up front, she is a free-going filly who has worn a hood in 10 of her 12 races, and the presence of fellow prominent racer Pretty Perfect does not look ideal in that regard at first glance. However, Journey does not have to lead. She was happy to take a lead in the Pinnacle Stakes at Haydock in May, and she was happy to sit in behind Arabian Queen in this race last year. She should be happy to sit behind Pretty Perfect if that filly wants to go forward. It could even help her.
Zhukova is a big player, but she is fashionable now and she is priced up just about right at around 4.5. Queen’s Trust and Bocca Baciata are both interesting, but Journey could represent the value of the race.
Mecca’s Angel (pictured) could represent the value in the Sprint Stakes. Michael Dods’ filly is a top class sprinter, as she proved with her back-to-back Nunthorpe Stakes wins last year and this year. She was also very good when she won the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes at The Curragh in July on Irish Oaks day, when she pulled three lengths clear of Brando, who went on to win the Ayr Gold Cup.
It looked like she put up a below-par performance in the Prix de l’Abbaye last time, but actually, that run was probably significantly better than appears to have been generally accepted. For starters, she finished third, she was only beaten a total of three parts of a length. But more importantly, she raced up with the pace in a race in which it was probably an advantage to race in rear.
She was the only horse in the race who raced prominently who was involved in the finish, and she looked a likely winner when she hit the front on the run to the furlong pole. She was the only one of the first nine home who went forward from early.
The Dark Angel filly is stepping up to six furlongs today for the first time since her juvenile days, but she finished off her race well over five furlongs in the Sapphire Stakes and in the Nunthorpe. The distance is an unknown, but there is every chance that she will get the extra furlong. If she does, she has a massive chance.
It is a deep race. Quiet Reflection and Twilight Son are top class, and Shalaa very interesting, one of the most exciting juveniles around last year who won on his three-year-old debut two weeks ago. Signs Of Blessing may be under-rated, and Librisa Breeze is interesting, stepping up in grade and down in distance.
But Mecca’s Angel has proven that she is top class. Her official rating is 122, the highest in the field, and she gets the 3lb fillies’ allowance. At the price, it is worth taking a chance on her stamina for six furlongs.
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