“Absolutely no regrets,” Aidan O’Brien said after the Gordon Stakes here on Wednesday, as always looking forward rather than back. O’Brien had just seen his colt Highland Reel, whose two previous wins had come on good to firm ground, take the Group Three contest but remained satisfied that the decision to scratch Gleneagles, the 2,000 Guineas winner, from Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes had been the correct one.
The prospect of seeing the first, and possibly only, meeting between Gleneagles and the excellent French-trained Solow must have shifted plenty of tickets for the second day of Glorious Goodwood, since the two horses both won Group One events on the opening day at Royal Ascot in June. Though the ground deteriorated to soft after 18mm of rain on Sunday, it was still a surprise to some when Gleneagles, the winner of three Group One races already this season, failed to appear among the final declarations, given how quickly a course on top of a chalk hill can drain.
“As soon as we walked on the course we were delighted that he was not running,” O’Brien said. “Joseph [O’Brien, who rode Highland Reel] said it was on the slow side in the straight and Gleneagles is a fast-ground horse.”
O’Brien nominated two French races, the Marois at Deauville in August and the Moulin at Longchamp in September, as Gleneagles’ possible targets. He kept open the option of stepping up in distance for other Group Ones at York or Leopardstown. “But the ground will decide where he goes, he wants good, fast ground.”
The going at Glorious Goodwood on Wednesday was officially riding good, and Highland Reel, who was runner-up in the French Derby in May, found a useful turn of foot to run down Scottish in the Gordon Stakes after being short of room a furlong out as Andrew Balding’s gelding struck for home.
The Gordon has a long history as a trial for the St Leger and has also been won by the subsequent Group One winners Harbinger and Noble Mission in recent seasons, but Highland Reel is just one among more than a dozen entries from O’Brien’s stable in the season’s final Classic at Doncaster and not, at this stage, a leading contender.
“The outside horse was leaning on him a little bit and it got a little bit tough for a minute,” O’Brien said. “We weren’t sure that this horse would stay but he ran in the French Derby and then the Irish Derby and ran disappointing, so didn’t really know what to expect
“I thought he was running a little bit on empty at the end but Joseph felt that he wasn’t stopping. I suppose we’d have to leave it open but the lads [Highland Reel’s owners in the Coolmore Stud syndicate] will talk and decide what they want to do. If he goes [to the Leger], I’d say that he’ll go straight there.”
