Willie Mullins, who came within a neck of Gold Cup glory when his Simenon was beaten by the Queen’s Estimate three years ago, can finally get his hands on the trophy with Max Dynamite (4.20). The six-year-old is very handily priced at 8-1, thanks to the enthusiasm for Aidan O’Brien’s Order Of St George.
While there is nothing wrong with Order Of St George, this will be a much stiffer test than anything he has so far faced and the race is not guaranteed to work out for him. He has been held up in the rear in his last two races and the temptation will be to do that again, since his stamina for this extreme trip is unproved, but then he will have to work his way through a dozen or more rivals.
If the early pace is slow, as happened in Estimate’s year, the back of the field will be the wrong place to be. Max Dynamite is more tactically versatile and may also have more to offer than we have seen.
An unlucky second in the Melbourne Cup, Mullins’s runner was a most impressive winner at York’s Ebor meeting last year, when Mizzou and Clever Cookie were soundly beaten. He should be sharper for his reappearance defeat three weeks ago.
2.30 Victorious in this race two years ago, Richard Hannon has another useful juvenile in Legendary Lunch, a battling winner of a Listed race at the Derby meeting. He ran freely in the early stages that day and had to work hard to repel a late challenge, so this step back in trip is probably the right way to go.
3.05 Blue De Vega may be winless this year but he has an excellent piece of form to his name, having been third behind Awtaad and Galileo Gold in the Irish 2,000 Guineas last month. If he improves for this step up in distance, as his pedigree suggests he should, he will be hard to beat here. He should also be helped by the surface which, in spite of all the recent rain, will be drier than it was at The Curragh.
3.40 Architecture’s second place in the Oaks makes her the obvious one but that was only a fortnight ago on a testing surface and there is a chance this may come too soon for her. At 10-1 a chance is taken on Queen’s Trust, whose quality pedigree suggests she will improve for this step up in distance. She has already shown enough to deserve her place in this company but one can hope for a fair bit better on only her second outing of the year and it is interesting to see that Sir Michael Stoute has gone to the trouble of booking Olivier Peslier.
5.00 Unbeaten since making a first appearance last year, the Richard Fahey-trained Garcia finished powerfully at Haydock last time and still looks nicely weighted.
5.35 From the team that won this last year with Space Age, Lovell should relish this step up in distance and had a helpful prep for this when second at Sandown last time out.
