Exosphere has been made favourite for Thursday’s Princess Of Wales’s Stakes despite letting his backers down very badly at Royal Ascot less than three weeks ago. Sir Michael Stoute’s colt was never sighted with a chance in the Hardwicke Stakes, for which he was sent off at 6-4, and trailed home 19 lengths behind his less-fancied stablemate Dartmouth, but the betting market clearly expects a bounce-back performance at Newmarket, for which he is no bigger than 5-2.
Connections are hoping this much sounder surface will elicit a stronger effort from Exosphere, having failed to locate any reason other than soft going for his Ascot flop. “He’s been fine since then,” said Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager to the owner, Khalid Abdullah.
“He scoped fine after that, he’s been sound ever since. Nothing at all untoward has come to light. It just might have been the ground that did it. It might have been too soft and sticky for him. He didn’t run that well on similar ground as a three-year-old but at the time we put it down to other things. If that is the answer, he should run well this time.”
Exosphere was not thought to be one of Stoute’s stars at the start of the season but grabbed a lot of attention with a four-length success in the Jockey Club Stakes on his reappearance in April, when the St Leger winner, Simple Verse, was made to look one-paced in second. That was the race in which Jack Hobbs, last year’s Irish Derby hero, was pulled up and dismounted.
The question for punters now is whether Exosphere was flattered by that outcome, but Lord Grimthorpe reports that such a display did not come as a complete surprise. “He had worked exceptionally well in the spring, or we’d have ducked those two Classic winners and gone somewhere else.
“It would be wrong to say we were confident of winning but we expected him to run very well. He travelled tremendously well into that race, which he didn’t do at Ascot. We hardly had a moment’s worry at Newmarket. After about three furlongs on Thursday, we’ll know what to expect.”
The going at Newmarket was changed on Tuesday to good to firm, good in places as the clerk of the course, Michael Prosser, reported his track had dried out remarkably well after taking three inches of rain in June. The forecast is dry and Prosser suggested he may water the course on Thursday evening.
Connections of many a horse will be delighted by the prospect of a major racing festival on a sound surface, rain having produced softish conditions for Epsom’s Derby meeting, Royal Ascot and the Eclipse at Sandown last weekend. Among those to have spent the last month wincing in frustration is Kevin Ryan, whose The Grey Gatsby will get his favoured fast surface for the first time in more than a year when he takes on Exosphere.
“He’s in great form,” Ryan said, adding that the distance of the Princess Of Wales’s, two furlongs further than his horse usually tackles, would not be a problem. “He’s only run once this year. We have to take this chance. If we wait another two weeks, we could be looking at soft ground again.”
A decision is expected early on Thursday morning as to whether Tawdeea will try to land a second major handicap in the space of a week by lining up in the John Smith’s Cup at York on Saturday. David O’Meara’s gelding pulled away from 16 rivals in the Old Newton Cup at Haydock last weekend and would be 4lb well in compared to his future handicap mark if he lined upat York, though the shorter distance and faster surface could be against him.
“We want to give him as much time as possible to recover before we decide,” said a spokesman for the owning syndicate, Middleham Park Racing. “It’s tempting to run, there’s £200,000 on offer, but the horse will come first. We’ve entered him for the Ebor [at York next month], so we need to take that into consideration, too.”
