HORSES OF 2012: THE CLASSIC LUCKY SEVEN: Here’s Daqman’s view of the best juveniles seen this season. Which among them will be Classic winners in 2012? Tomorrow: National Hunt horses to follow through to Aintree and Cheltenham.
Born To Sea So-hyped half-brother to Sea The Stars that he started favourite on his debut for the Blenheim Stakes at The Curragh in September over horses of experience, including at Group level.
But, albeit in a slow-run race, he dismissed his opponents with a brilliant turn of foot in the final furlong. Born To Sea is the final foal of Arc De Triomphe winner, Urban Sea, who was also the dam of the prolific sire Galileo.
Camelot Those in the Ring who went evens at Doncaster last Saturday watched in dismay as the Ballydoyle talking horse replaced words with action, and pretty effortless action at that, as he swept past his field in the Racing Post Trophy.
Trainer of the third, John Gosden, was prompted to say ‘wow’ as he watched his colt, Fenced, being made to look pedestrian by the winning son of Montjeu, who became on obvious Derby favourite.
However, many punters are still smarting from their ante-post Classic losses on recent Racing Post winners Crowded House and St Nicholas Abbey, and to a lesser extent Casamento.
Dabirsim Unbeaten after five starts – showing an electric turn of foot – the first two successes in the French provinces but then joining in the mainstream at a level which set him among the top juveniles by beating the Group yardstick B Fifty Two.
The Japanese-bred colt, who cost only 30,000 euros, then completed a sensational Prix Morny and Grand Criterium double, landing the Criterium (now called the Jean-Luc Lagardere) as Frankie Dettori’s 500th Group-race winner. Dettori’s verdict: ‘He’s a superstar’.’
Discourse Another one for Dettori, as Discourse, a daughter of Street Cry, cruises clear in the Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket in August.
Discourse had already won at Newmarket for Mahmood Al Zarooni but the back-to-back HQ wins were the last we saw of her in 2011, as a minor injury kept her out of the autumn juvenile-fillies’ ‘Classics’.
Harbour Watch Bannock, placed in the July Stakes and National Stakes, and fifth in the Norfolk at Royal Ascot, was a good yardstick by which to judge the winner of the Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in late July.
But it was no contest, as Harbour Watch slammed Bannock more than two lengths with, subsequently, an even stronger benchmark, Caspar Netscher, in third. ‘Caspar’ went on to a Gimcrack and Mill Reef double.
But, where most trainers with Classic aspirations are carefully nurturing their youngsters through the winter, watching them grow, Richard Hannon is on double watch after Harbour Watch sustained a hind-leg injury before the Dewhurst. Will he overcome it? Will he make the normal improvement at the same time?
Maybe There was very little between La Collina and the Ballydoyle Galileo filly Maybe when Maybe was odds-on and just edged out her unfancied rival (La Collina 10-1) at Leopardstown in July.
La Collina then turned over Coventry Stakes winning colt Power when an even bigger price (33-1) for the Phoenix Stakes.
So La Collina was much shorter when she met Maybe again in the Moyglare, but finished even further behind (nearly five lengths). No wonder Maybe is short for the 1,000 Guineas.
Parish Hall Last but one to La Collina in the Phoenix Stakes and runner-up in the Futurity (now named after Galileo), so Parish Hall was 20-1 when he lined up for the Dewhurst at Newmarket this month.
Starting favourite was the Coventry Stakes winner, Power, who had run up to La Collina in the Phoenix, with Parish Hall around five lengths behind.
But it was a different story on better ground in the Dewhurst, a race his trainer Jim Bolger had farmed before with Teofilo and New Approach. Parish Hall won, but more like a Derby winner than a Guineas prospect was the opinion of race-readers on the day.
The Bolger stable also has Zip Top, who still ran green behind Camelot in the Racing Post Trophy, but is a good guide at home to Parish Hall’s standing, at least as the form looks going into the close season.
DAQMAN’S BETS
BET 4pts win DAMMAM (4.00 Haydock)
BET 1.4pts win and place MOBUS WAN (6.05 Kempton)
BET 10pts win (nap) CIRCUS MONDAO (7.05 Kempton)
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