Nine days before fielding the favourite in the Derby, John Gosden faces another significant moment in his season when returning Eagle Top to the track for Thursday’s Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown. The four-year-old has the potential to make quite a splash over the coming months, having been fourth in last summer’s King George on just his fourth outing, but has not been seen since.
“That race just took a bit too much out of him,” said Hugo Lascelles, racing manager to Eagle Top’s owner, Lady Bamford. “Nothing particularly went wrong with him but we decided not to persevere in the face of one or two little teething issues.”
Ten months later, Eagle Top is reportedly in fine form and working well. Lascelles is clear that the colt will be better for this outing but it is an indication of the ambitions held for him that the target at Royal Ascot next month is expected to be the Prince of Wales Stakes, a Group One contest, rather than the Hardwicke, which is one rung lower. Eagle Top was an impressive winner at the Royal meeting last year inthe King Edward VII, beating Adelaide, who later won Grade Ones in the US and Australia.
“He’s had nearly a year off and, while he’s been going well, he’ll need the race,” Lascelles said. “Hopefully this will put him spot on for Ascot.”
Eagle Top takes on five rivals, four of whom are also entered in the Prince of Wales, including his stablemate, Western Hymn. The favourite at 9-4 is Godolphin’s Tryster, who tries his luck on turf after five consecutive all-weather wins, most recently when landing a £124,000 prize at Lingfield on Good Friday.
One day after the German star Karpino entered the picture for next week’s Derby, he was taken out of it. His trainer, Andreas Wöhler, has said the Epsom Classic will come too soon after Monday’s success in the German 2,000 Guineas.
“Had it been another two weeks, we would have made another decision,” said Wöhler, who named the German Derby at Hamburg on 5 July as Karpino’s next race. “The horse is fine, but it would not do him any good running him too quickly, with the travelling, and he is still relatively inexperienced.”
Wöhler will still be represented at Epsom but by the outsider Rogue Runner, who is owned, like Karpino, by Qatar’s Sheikh Fahad. The Sheikh may also have Elm Park and Sumbal in the race, although the latter is thought more likely to go for Sunday’s French Derby.
The possibility appears to have receded of Ascot one day being able to use plastic rain covers in order to ensure a decent surface for its late-season Champions Day. The subject caused some excitement last autumn, when it was suggested that a trial might take place this spring.
“I don’t know whether we’ll get to a time when we’ll have a trial,” said Ascot’s spokesman, Nick Smith. “The challenges are so widespread, it would be difficult to know where to start [describing them].
“We’re talking to companies who may or may not be able to make a structure but it’s so far off anything that might resemble a plan that it’s not worth offering dates or times. It’s not off the table. It’s being researched.”
A rather more tangible plan has been formed for last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, California Chrome, to exercise at Ascot next week, possibly on the morning of Oaks day. Frankie Dettori is expected to partner the horse, entered for the Prince of Wales at Royal Ascot.
