Ralph Beckett saddled the first two horses home in the Park Hill Stakes on Thursday and then launched a stinging attack on what he calls the “disgraceful” prize funds for several of the feature races during Doncaster’s biggest week of the year.
Beckett took the Group Two feature event on the second day of the St Leger Festival with the 25-1 outsider Alyssa, who enjoyed a soft lead through the first 10 furlongs and rallied after being headed inside the final furlong to beat Melodic Motion, the 9-2 co-favourite, and Aljazeera, who dead-heated for second place, by half a length. “I just thought turning in that she’d done nothing for over a mile and they might just have a job to get past her,” Beckett said. “Of course, I was also watching the other filly [Melodic Motion], who was travelling like a dream.
“I’m delighted for Ms [Kirsten] Rausing [the owner of Alyssa], and I’ll have a bit of explaining to do to Sheikh Fahad, but she [Melodic Motion] looked like perhaps she didn’t quite get the mile six-and-a-half.
“The only downside is diabolical prize money for this race, absolutely disgraceful. We had three-year-olds off [handicap marks of] 80 running in £100,000 mile-and-a-half and mile-and-six handicaps last weekend at Haydock and Ascot.”
Doncaster’s two Group Two contests on Thursday the May Hill Stakes for juvenile fillies and the Park Hill Stakes, for staying fillies, had first prizes of £40,000 and £51,000 respectively, while the connections of Melodic Motion picked up £14,000.
Asked what he felt would be a fair prize for a Group Two race at this meeting, Beckett said: “What York put on for Group Twos, that would be a fair prize.”
York staged four Group Two events at its showpiece Ebor Festival meeting last month, for which the first prize ranged from the £96,000 earned by Cracksman in the Great Voltigeur Stakes to the £142,000 prize for the Lowther Stakes for juvenile fillies. The average winning prize money in the four races was £119,000.
The Group Two races on Friday’s card, the Flying Childers Stakes and the Doncaster Cup, are worth £40,000 and £57,000 to the winner respectively, while the disparity in the money on offer at Yorkshire’s two major racing Festivals also extends to their Group One feature events. The International Stakes, the most valuable race at the Ebor Festival, was worth £567,000 to the winner, while the first prize for Saturday’s St Leger, the fifth and final Classic of the British season, is £397,000.
Arena Racing Company, which owns and operates Doncaster, declined to comment when asked for a response to Beckett’s criticism.
Laurens, who finished strongly to win the May Hill Stakes by a head from Dark Rose Angel, is quoted at 33-1 for next year’s 1,000 Guineas and Karl Burke, her trainer, feels she will be well worth her place in a Classic field next season.
“Something like the Prix de Diane [French Oaks] at a mile-and-a-quarter could be perfect for her,” Burke said. “She’s got an entry in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, which has already closed, and she’ll be entered in all the Guineas, but the Prix de Diane would be the target that I would have in mind for her.
“She will only improve again. She’s in the [Group One] Fillies’ Mile [at Newmarket on 13 October], which would give her an extra couple of weeks [compared to the Prix Marcel Boussac on 1 October] so we’ll see how she comes out of this but that’s a possibility.
“As far as the fillies are concerned, she’s the best we’ve had at this stage. She wouldn’t be a speed filly but she’s very good. I knew the last furlong was going to be our best furlong and I knew we’d stay right to the line. She’s tough and she’s game.”
Frankie Dettori has chosen to ride the filly Coronet, the winner of the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, in preference to the Goodwood Cup winner Stradivarius in Saturday’s St Leger, for which there were 11 final declarations on Thursday morning.
Stradivarius, who denied Big Orange a hat-trick of wins in the Goodwood contest in its first renewal as a Group One event, drifted in the betting as a result, from a top price of 6-1 on Thursday morning to 9-1 a few hours later.
Coronet, who could be backed at 10-1 on Thursday morning, is now the fourth-favourite at a best price of 13-2, while Aidan O’Brien’s Capri, the Irish Derby winner, is vying for favouritism with Crystal Ocean, from Sir Michael Stoute’s stable in Newmarket. Both horses are available at 4-1 with Roger Varian’s Defoe also popular at a top price of 5-1.
Friday’s tips, by Greg Wood
Chester 2.15 Spud 2.50 Fyre Cay 3.25 Nathan 3.55 Explain 4.30 Song Maker 5.05 On Fire 5.40 Miss Goldsmith
Doncaster 1.20 Tip Two Win 1.50 Tomyris 2.25 Heartache (nap) 3.00 Time To Study 3.35 Desert Skyline (nb) 4.05 Ghaiyyath 4.35 Muntadab 5.10 Swilly Sunset
Salisbury 4.25 Alternative Fact 5.00 Dandiesque 5.30 Incentive 6.05 Travelcard 6.35 On To Victory 7.05 Ajman King
Sandown 1.30 Swing Out Sister 2.00 Melonade 2.35 Mekong 3.10 Sharja Bridge 3.45 Here’s Two 4.15 Grand Inquisitor 4.45 Capton
