Aidan O’Brien’s Capri, the strong favourite when betting opened on Monday for the Group One Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday, was a big drifter in the market on Wednesday in the face of strong support for his stable companion Yucatan.
Capri was top-priced at 5-4 for the one-mile contest on Wednesday morning, with Yucatan available at 5-1, but by mid‑afternoon their positions had all but reversed, with Yucatan the new favourite at a general price of even-money and Capri out to 3-1.
The two colts lined up against each other in the Group Two Beresford Stakes at The Curragh in September, when O’Brien’s principal jockey Ryan Moore steered Capri to a three-quarter-length defeat of Yucatan, who was ridden by Donnacha O’Brien, the trainer’s son. Both Capri and Yucatan are still expected to be in the field for the Trophy when the final declarations are made on Thursday morning, but there was speculation on Wednesday that on this occasion Moore may side with Yucatan.
O’Brien, who will be hoping to win his 13th Group One in Britain this season, told the Racing Post on Wednesday afternoon that “it is certainly a possibility that Ryan will ride Yucatan”, and also hinted that he could have four runners in the race, with The Anvil and Finn McCool, both 20-1 chances, described as “likely” runners.
“There was not a lot between Yucatan and Capri in the Beresford,” O’Brien said. “Yucatan is progressing nicely, though. He took a big step forward from his debut to win his maiden at The Curragh at the end of August and then he took another big step forward to finish second in the Beresford. He has come forward with every run and I think he has progressed again since the Beresford.”
Two more potential contenders for next season’s top three-year-old events were winners on Wednesday on the card at Newmarket, where Cracksman became the latest member of Frankel’s first crop of foals to make a winning racecourse debut.
In all, Frankel has now produced 17 individual winners this season and Cracksman added to his sire’s record in determined fashion, seeing off the persistent challenge of Wild Tempest in the final furlong to win by a length and a quarter.
Cracksman was quoted for the 2,000 Guineas after his win but the trainer John Gosden feels that he will be a middle‑distance colt next year and is more likely to start his three-year-old career at a mile and a quarter.
“He’s a grand horse who’s done nothing but grow this year and he’s still very unfurnished,” Gosden said. “His mother [Rhadegunda] was honest and tried her heart out, a very gutsy filly, and he’s inherited that.
“I think he’s still an overgrown kid, you can still count every rib and he’s just a frame of a horse right now.
“A good winter on his back and I can see us going straight to a mile and a quarter with him. I think that’s where his strengths are going to lie, over those middle-distances, I wouldn’t want to rush him over a mile.”
Cracksman, at 9-2, completed a 13-2 double for the yard after the Godolphin operation’s Dreamfield scrambled home by a short-head at odds of 2-5 in the Houghton Conditions Stakes.
James Doyle edged Dreamfield home after a sustained duel with Top Score, also in the Godolphin colours but trained by Saeed bin Suroor, who recently demoted Doyle from his role as his principal jockey. The winner had been seen as a possible Classic contender, but will now be kept at sprint trips in the early months of next season.
“He got left alone in front a long time,” Gosden said. “We will go for the Pavilion Stakes [at Ascot in April] and then the [Group One] Commonwealth Cup [at Royal Ascot in June] rather than the Greenham. It’s much better knowing now what to train him for.”
