Big Orange, one of the most popular Flat horses in training, will head to the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot next month as a “major player”, according to Frankie Dettori, his new regular jockey, after an easy front-running success in the Henry II Stakes here on Thursday evening.
Big Orange has not managed to win until July in either of the last two seasons, but he needs fast ground to produce his best form and finished 10th under top weight in the Melbourne Cup last November. Michael Bell’s six-year-old, who also has won the last two runnings of the Goodwood Cup, is still available at double-figure odds for the Ascot Gold Cup but the reception he received here suggests he will have plenty of supporters at the Royal meeting.
“It’s really nice for him to have a confidence booster,” Bell said. “He’s had some hard races in the last six months, travelling around the world. It’s nice to come back and have the race won quite a long way out. Hopefully it will tee him up for the rest of the year.
“Ascot Gold Cup next. We’ll pray we get a nice hot steamy Ascot because he loves the fast ground. We took him out of the Gold Cup last year because of the rain, he just needs summer ground to be at his best. There’s no point taking on class horses on ground that doesn’t suit him.
“He’s such a good mover, he’s an enormous horse and he’s got an enormous stride. Frankie said that he’ll run a huge race and he’s really looking forward to it, and he’s a major player on fast ground.”
The card’s traditional feature race, the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes, was diminished by the scratching of So Mi Dar, the certain favourite, due to a muscle enzyme problem. In her absence Autocratic turned around his recent form with Steel Of Madrid to the tune of around a dozen lengths as he burst through a gap under Ryan Moore to win at 8-1.
Autocratic does not have any significant entries but the fact that he has been kept in training with Sir Michael Stoute is encouraging and his connections will now look for a Group 2 contest in the hope of continued progress. “He’s not had a lot of luck,” Chris Richardson, racing manager to Cheveley Park Stud, which owns Autocratic, said. “He’s quite a heavy horse and he’s been quite difficult to get fit so we haven’t given him any fancy entries, but we will have a think about things now and it’s a nice problem to have.”
The card’s third trial for Royal Ascot, the Listed National Stakes for juveniles, was won in typical Sandown fashion on the track’s straight five-furlong course as Havana Grey grabbed the far rail from his draw in stall one and made all the running to win by a length from the favourite, Frozen Angel.
The Group 2 Norfolk Stakes is the obvious target for a National Stakes winner, though it is 14 years since Russian Valour became the last horse to complete the double, and Havana Grey is 8-1 from 20-1 to follow up at the Royal meeting.
“I don’t know if we’ll go over five furlongs or six [at Royal Ascot],” Kelly Burke, the daughter of Havana Grey’s trainer, Karl, said. “The way he ran there I’d probably say five furlongs, but that will be up to the boss.
“He does everything you ask of him, he has such a great attitude. We didn’t want to lose that rail today with that good draw, but I think he’ll definitely be better taking a lead. He does improve with something to aim at.”
Mori, a daughter of Frankel out of Midday, who took the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood three years in a row from 2009, was a comfortable winner of the Height Of Fashion Stakes at the Sussex track earlier in the afternoon and will now run in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot.
“Her father won two Sussex Stakes and her mother won three Nassaus,” Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Mori’s owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, said. “If we were ever to breed a winner for Goodwood, this is the one. On that you’d be pretty confident she’d have no problems getting a mile-and-a-half.”
Friday’s selections
Bath
1.40 Go Amber Go 2.10 One Minute 2.45 Gold Filigree 3.20 Waves 3.55 Last Page 4.30 Gambol 5.05 Wapping 5.35 Hot Mustard
Pontefract
6.30 Whitkirk (nap) 7.00 Tamayuz Magic 7.30 Rufus King 8.00 Silvanus 8.30 Bonnie Arlene 9.00 Romanticism
Goodwood
2.00 May Remain 2.35 War Whisper 3.10 Alnaas 3.45 The Grand Visir 4.20 Notice 4.55 Vibrant Chords (nb) 5.25 Midnightly
Worcester
5.50 Brody Bleu 6.20 Mr Mix 6.50 Foundation Man 7.20 Adrrastos 7.50 Royal Village 8.20 Phare Isle 8.50 My Cousin Rachel
Haydock Park
2.20 Mazaaher 2.55 Hard Graft 3.30 Suitcase ‘N’ Taxi 4.05 Sasini 4.40 Arsenio Lupin 5.10 Critical Thinking 5.40 Atty Persse
Musselburgh
6.40 Mr Sundowner 7.10 Cheerfilly 7.40 Glengarry 8.10 Purple Rock 8.40 Rey Loopy 9.10 Amy Blair
