John Gosden warmed up for next week’s Derby, in which he has two fancied runners, by landing the Brigadier Gerard Stakes here on Thursday night with Western Hymn under James Doyle. The winner will now be aimed at Royal Ascot’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, which Gosden won last year with The Fugue.
Western Hymn seemed to toy with his backers in the concluding stages, apparently weighing up whether or not to go past the favourite, Arab Spring, who tried to make all. Eventually, Doyle managed to persuade him to go past, with just a head separating the two at the line. Gosden’s Eagle Top, running for the first time in 10 months, finished fourth.
“He’s a horse that, if you hit the front too soon, he says, I’ve done it all and then he has a look at the crowd,” Gosden reported of Western Hymn. “That’s him and he’s a lovely character but he did get there too quick. He might have won half a length if he’d left it later.
“I was particularly delighted with Eagle Top because he had no cover. He wants a big field with cover and he’s sitting there, upsides another, from six out, back at school, very fresh, full of himself. He’s run a lovely race but he’s needed it. He looks in great shape after the race, I’m delighted with him. He goes to the Hardwicke and this horse, if he gets reasonable ground, goes to the Prince of Wales.”
Godolphin’s Tryster was the disappointment of the race, trailing home last of five after failing to get involved. It was his first race on turf since July, since when he has become a major force on Polytrack.
Earlier, King Of Rooks finished strongly to win the National Stakes by five lengths, comprehensively turning around previous form with Godolphin’s Steady Pace, who started favourite but faded into third. The result means Richard Hannon has bagged the race in both his seasons with a trainer’s licence and he will now consider Royal Ascot options for the winner, with the Norfolk currently the more likely target over the Coventry.
“He got the run of the race, there’s no doubt about that,” Hannon said. “I was a bit disappointed with his first run, he arrived there very easily and didn’t pick up at all. I was a bit surprised and probably questioning whether he was the horse we thought he was. But luckily he appears to be. He knew his job, to a certain extent, first time. He travelled very well, knew what to do, he just didn’t quite have the legs to get there. I thought he was beaten by a very good horse, who, for some reason, he’s reversed the form … I doubt he’s improved that much. I’d say probably the third horse hasn’t run his race like he did at Ascot, maybe the track or something, I don’t know.”
Richard Hughes, who rode King Of Rooks, completed a double on the card when making all to land the Henry II Stakes aboard Vent De Force. Hughie Morrison’s four-year-old is now a best price of 14-1 for Ascot’s Gold Cup.
Hannon had had a treble at Haydock that afternoon, including with a brace of juveniles who could show up at the Royal meeting next month. Ring Of Truth, owned by the Queen, scrambled home by a head in a six-furlong maiden but the trainer feels he might still step her down in distance for Ascot’s Queen Mary.
The trainer reported that Ivawood had recovered well from his third place in Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas but will not make a decision about his choice of Ascot target until much nearer the time, with the Jersey Stakes appearing to be a narrow favourite at this stage.
More immediately, Hannon is excited by the prospect of a first runner in the Derby, his Moheet, a 40-1 shot, having been diverted to the Classic instead of a Listed contest on this card that had been suggested as his next outing.
“I’ll have to go and walk the course now,” the trainer joked. “He’s a very nice horse, one I’ve always thought a lot of, and he’s capable of a lot more.” Recalling Moheet’s eighth place finish in the Guineas, in which the horse bumped into a rival in the closing stages, he said things had not gone the colt’s way.
“He appreciates fast ground, he’ll improve for the step up in trip, Pat Dobbs is going to ride and all to play for, absolutely nothing to lose. I’m not expecting him to win but sometimes they do.”
There was just a tinge of regret in the Hannon’s voice as he conceded that running Moheet in the Derby probably precludes a trip to Royal Ascot less than a fortnight later. “But we can’t all of a sudden go to the Derby in eight weeks either. We have to take our chance while it’s there and it appears, this year, to be quite an open Derby with no megastar on show, at the moment. I’m sure, after the race, there’ll be a megastar.”
Sumbal is most unlikely to be supplemented for next week’s Derby, his French-based trainer said. The colt is thought to need some cut in the ground, which he would get in the French Derby on Sunday but probably not at Epsom six days later.
“I think it is 90% certain he will run at Chantilly on Sunday,” said Francis-Henri Graffard. “The horse is very well.” The news, if proving accurate, would leave Sumbal’s owner, Qatar’s Sheikh Fahad, with Elm Park and Rogue Runner as his expected Derby runners.
