Elm Park, last seen trailing home with just one horse behind him in the Derby, will bid to get his career back on track at Sandown on Wednesday when he takes a big drop in class and surprisingly reverts to a mile in the Fortune Stakes.
Last year’s winner of the Royal Lodge Stakes and Racing Post Trophy started the campaign as one of the strong fancies for the Epsom Classic, and after finishing third to the subsequent Derby first and second, Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs, in the mile-and-a-quarter Dante at York in May went off the 9-1 fourth favourite. But the Andrew Balding-trained colt pulled far too hard in the early stages at Epsom and was soon beaten after being overtaken in the home straight.
Elm Park will be racing over half a mile less on Wednesday and will face the consistent Gabrial, Decorated Knight and Clive Cox’s progressive My Dream Boat.
“It seems like a while since we last saw him,” said David Redvers, racing manager for the owner, Qatar Racing, which was in the news at the weekend when its Simple Verse was thrown out after winning the St Leger at Doncaster.
“He’s in very good order, according to Andrew, who is very happy with him. This looks like a perfect race to find out whether we should be looking at going over 10 furlongs or whatever,” added Redvers.
“Andrew actually thinks, a bit like Arod [also owned by Qatar Racing], that he is getting quicker the older he gets. So we’ll see how he copes over a mile and after this we’ll see which way we’ll go.
“Obviously, the hope would be something on Champions Day [at Ascot in mid-October] but we’ll take it a race at a time.”
Roger Varian’s Decorated Knight was favourite for the Cambridgeshire Handicap before it was announced he would not be running and the trainer feels the three-year-old is a Group horse in the making.
“I think he’s better than a handicapper and this looks a nice race for him,” said Varian. “Obviously he has lengths and pounds to find on the ratings but he’s a capable horse who I’ve a lot of time for.
“He’s been doing his winning on nice ground and as a close relation to Gleneagles he wouldn’t want it too soft, so we’ll just have to see how it is tomorrow. Trying to predict these things is a waste of time so we’ll just have to see.”
Cox’s My Dream Boat was very impressive in a competitive handicap at York and is another stepping up in grade for the first time.
“He was very impressive at York and has done very well this season, taking positive steps forward with each run,” said the trainer.
“This looks a good race, though. He’s up to [a rating of] 101 now and he still has a bit to find with a couple of them, but he’s very progressive. I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on. He’s on a bit of a twilight rating at the moment but I’ve always hoped he’d progress into a Pattern horse. The ground won’t be a problem but the likes of Elm Park and Gabrial are very good horses.”
Meanwhile, Cox’s exciting Kodi Bear is set to head straight to Ascot where he faces the Sussex Stakes winner Solow in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day. Kodi Bear has won three of his four outings, impressing in the Celebration Mile at Goodwood when running out a three-and-a-quarter-length winner last time out.
“Everything is fine with Kodi Bear,” said Cox. “It will be straight to Ascot with him for the QEII. We entered him for Newmarket [for the Joel Stakes] but he’ll be going straight to Ascot.”
