Next week’s thrilling confrontation between Golden Horn and Gleneagles in the Juddmonte International will be no two-horse race, as the fast-improving Time Test has now been committed to the race. Far from being scared off by the unexpected strength of the York contest, Roger Charlton, Time Test’s trainer, said he was encouraged by it and added that Pat Smullen was expected to ride his horse for the first time.
“He’s got to work on Friday and, if he does that well and comes out of it, yes, he’s all on course,” said Charlton, who added that “everything’s good” with the horse.
“I’m quite pleased he’s running Gleneagles, actually,” Charlton said of Aidan O’Brien, the Irish trainer who delivered the surprise news on Tuesday. “Gleneagles is a dual Guineas winner and we’ve got a Derby/Eclipse winner as well. It would be no disgrace to be third. If we can finish in front of one of them or both of them, even better.”
Time Test is facing a major step up in class, for all that he was an impressive winner of a Group Three contest at Royal Ascot when last seen in mid-June. Frankie Dettori partnered him on that occasion but he is committed to Golden Horn, while Ryan Moore, the only other jockey to have partnered Time Test this year, is sidelined by injury.
The decision to go with Smullen appears to have come from Time Test’s owner, Khalid Abdullah, who sponsors next week’s race under the banner of his Juddmonte breeding operation. “He’s ridden quite a lot of Juddmonte horses and he’s very good,” Charlton said. Smullen was seen to especially good effect when winning on Abdullah’s Snow Sky at Royal Ascot.
Charlton takes the view that his two big-name rivals next week will not have everything to suit them and pointed out in particular that the Derby winner may have to set his own pace in the expected absence of any runner inclined to do it for him. He also noted that Gleneagles will be without either of the men who have ridden him in his last eight races, Moore being one while the other, Joseph O’Brien, is now thought to be too heavy.
“It’s going to be a four- or five-horse race,” Charlton said. “Golden Horn will have to make the running. Gleneagles may not get the trip. Does Joseph O’Brien do 8st 12lb? He hasn’t done 8st 12lb for years.”
O’Brien was able to do 8st 12lb last year, including when successful in the York race on Australia. But he has not done less than 9st this year, following well publicised struggles with his weight. Time Test is a best price of 6-1 for the York contest next Wednesday. Golden Horn is available at 8-11 with Gleneagles on 100-30.
Free Eagle, winner of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on his reappearance, is a 20-1 shot, reflecting expectations that he will wait for the Irish Champion Stakes early next month. “I think York is probably looking less likely,” said Fiona Craig, adviser to the owners, Moyglare Stud. “I’m not sure it’s settled in stone but he’ll probably go straight to Leopardstown. He was very tired after he came home from Ascot. As everyone knows, it was a bit of a rush to get him there anyway and he ran his heart out on the day.
“He’s in good form now again, though. He worked on the racecourse at the Curragh on Monday morning as they’d had a bit of rain and it was beautiful ground.
“We’d like to get to the Arc and we just think to run at York and then Leopardstown and then go to Longchamp would be a fair bit of racing in a short space of time.
“I think he’ll probably stay in the York race at the five-day stage, just in case it cuts up and the likes of Golden Horn and Gleneagles come out, but at the moment it looks like we’ll wait for the autumn.”
