Sir Michael Stoute, whose Ulysses will be one of the favourites for the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Saturday, said that the decision to replace Jim Crowley as the colt’s jockey despite two Group One wins for the partnership this season was taken because “Frankie [Dettori] had already ridden him in a Turf”, when the Italian was beaten into fourth place behind Highland Reel last year.
The 2016 Turf was Dettori’s only previous start aboard Ulysses, who has also been ridden in the past by Ryan Moore, Andrea Atzeni and Ted Durcan. The four‑year‑old appeared to have found his ideal pilot, however, when Crowley took over in the summer, and his five starts on Ulysses included wins in both the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and the International at York, as well as places in the frame in the King George at Ascot and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. As a result, the decision to replace Crowley, Britain’s champion jockey in 2016, on Saturday in favour of Dettori took many racing fans by surprise, but Stoute feels Dettori’s Breeders’ Cup experience could tip the balance this weekend. “Jim was very confident on him [at York] and gave him a beautiful ride,” Stoute said. [But] Frankie rode him last year, he’s ridden him in a Breeders’ Cup Turf already and I think that’s a definite advantage. We’ve been delighted with what Jim has done on him, but we’re in America now, Frankie rode him here last time and he’s riding him again.”
Ulysses was relaxed as he left his barn to exercise here on Wednesday morning, but he was a little edgy and anxious once he reached the track and remained so until he returned to his stall. By contrast, his stable companion Queen’s Trust, who will attempt to win the Filly & Mare Turf for the second year running this weekend, was relaxed throughout, as was also the case 12 months ago before she finished fast under Dettori to beat Lady Eli, one of America’s best turf fillies, by a nose.
“Ulysses was fresh and bouncy this morning, and it’s all new for him,” Stoute said. “He’s an improved horse [this season], but whether he’s improved enough to beat Highland Reel and one or two of the others, we’ll see. He’ll like this ground, but the track’s a bit tight for all of them and he’ll need a lot of luck as a result.”
Ulysses was the narrow favourite for the Turf on Wednesday morning but has drifted in the betting in the past 24 hours in the face of support for Highland Reel, who made all the running to record a comfortable success in the race last year. Highland Reel is now top‑priced at 9-4 to record back-to-back wins, while Ulysses is 11-4.
Marsha, who will have her last start for the Elite Racing Club in Saturday’s Turf Sprint, had the lightest of canters on the dirt track on Wednesday morning under her big-race jockey, Luke Morris.
Marsha, who beat Lady Aurelia, the favourite for Saturday’s race, by a nose in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in August, was barely out of a walk on a half-circuit of the track, which was very much the plan according to William Butler, the assistant to Sir Mark Prescott, Marsha’s trainer.
“You’re always worried taking a five-furlong sprinter on a track with horses either side of her, but it was grand,” Butler said. “Cantering steadily up Warren Hill [in Newmarket] is very different to cantering around here, it was just a first day on the track to get her out there so she can have a look.”
The memory of the champion sprinter Lochsong, who astonished work-watchers with her time in a gallop before the Sprint in 1994 but then ran poorly in the race, is a reminder that races can be left behind on the exercise track.
“We’ve canvassed lots of people about what you should and shouldn’t do on these international trips, and everyone is of the opinion that you should do as little as possible. It’s not as if she’s unfit, she’s been racing all year, and we feel that the less she does going into a race, the better her performance. The most explosive we have her, the better.
“She hadn’t been round a turn since she was a two-year-old, so we took her to Chelmsford to give her experience going left-handed at a speed where she had to organise herself,” Butler said. “She did that fine, but they’re going to go so quick here that it’s going to be whether she handles it or not and I’m not sure we could have done a lot more to prepare her.”
Marsha is the 11-2 second-favourite to win this weekend, behind Lady Aurelia, the 6-5 market leader.
Thursday’s tips, by Greg Wood
Chelmsford City 5.25 Rastacap 5.55 Far Dawn 6.25 Miss Mirabeau 6.55 Battersea 7.25 Super Julius 7.55 Diagostic 8.30 Love Oasis 9.00 Caledonian Gold
Lingfield Park 12.15 Scandaleuse 12.45 Il Primo Sole 1.20 Khamaary (nap) 1.50 Easy Tiger 2.25 Val De Marne (nb) 2.55 Daily Trader 3.30 Choral Clan 4.00 Dream Start
Sedgefield 1.00 Volt Face 1.30 Judge Earle 2.05 The Happy Chappy 2.35 Sun Cloud 3.10 Audacious Plan 3.40 Undefined Beauty 4.10 Pixiepot
Stratford 1.40 Shanroe In Milan 2.15 Royal Beekeeper 2.45 The Geegeez Geegee 3.20 Western Ryder 3.50 Keeper Hill 4.20 Allthegear No Idea
