Wildly unusual quantities of rain have left Sandown waterlogged just nine days before the Eclipse Stakes, the midsummer highlight at the London track. That counts as bad news for backers of the favourite, Time Test, whose preference is for a fast surface, but connections will postpone a decision about whether he runs until nearer the time.
“We had 45mm last night,” reported Andrew Cooper, Sandown’s highly respected clerk of the course yesterday. “According to our records, we get that quantity of rain about once every five years but we’ve now had it twice in the space of a week.
“In the short term, the effect is quite bad on the turn out of the back straight, from the six-furlong pole round to the pond area. We’re on a slope, so that’s the lower part of the course and it’s a combination of the rain, water gradually finding it’s lowest point and some of the drains failing to cope with what’s come down.
“You are wading through water in some places. If we were giving a going description, it would be ‘heavy, waterlogged in places’. You’d find bits of soft going but it’s certainly unraceable and likely to remain so for the next 48 hours.”
While the situation is bound to improve at this time of year and with temperatures in the low 20s, Cooper said the forecast over the next few days hardly amounted to ideal drying conditions, so there is a possibility of the Eclipse being run on ground with some cut in it. Further showers are expected in the area tonighton Thursday night.
“Nine days is a huge amount of time in terms of weather and ground,” Cooper added. “But we’ve had four inches of rain in a week, so we’re going to stay on the softer side of things for a while. And of course, when you’ve had that much, it only takes a bit more rain to top things up to where you were before.”
Some firms have responded by pushing Time Test out to 7-2 for the Eclipse, though he remains favourite and is still as short as 7-4 with other bookmakers. His trainer, Roger Charlton, insisted that no decision about his participation could be made at such an early stage.
“It’s too soon,” Charlton said. “No one knows what the ground is going to be like nine days from now and I don’t want to be drawn into speculation.”
Charlton, who is based at Beckhampton in Wiltshire, has said that Time Test is at his best on good to firm or firm going. The horse was an impressive winner in the Tercentenary Stakes at Royal Ascot last year on a fast surface and achieved the highest rating of his career on similar ground when last seen, winning the Brigadier Gerard at Sandown in May.
Cannock Chase, who was a 16-1 shot for the Eclipse, will miss the race whatever the weather. A spokesman for his owner said the horse had still not recovered from the setback that kept him out of Royal Ascot and would be absent “for a little while”.
Silvestre De Sousa’s title chance took a thump on Thursday when he was handed an 18-day ban under the totting-up rules, having racked up five whip offences in the past three months. Six days of the ban will be deferred until late August, to be triggered if he offends again.
The reigning champion De Sousa leads Ryan Moore by four wins in this year’s title race and some firms had shortened his odds about a repeat victory to 1-3. However, he is now available at 4-6 while Moore is 3-1.
De Sousa’s ban rules him out of the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown next week and the whole of the July meeting at his local track, Newmarket. However, it may be the lost chance to ride winners at relatively minor meetings that causes him most anguish.
