Secret Number, a horse whose talent has been stifled by a series of injuries in recent seasons, will be aimed at valuable targets in Australia later this year after he returned from a 313-day absence to win the Listed Doonside Cup at Ayr.
Secret Number is closely related to several Group One winners and showed considerable promise in his first two seasons on the track, concluding his three-year-old campaign by finishing sixth in the St Leger and then winning the Group Three Cumberland Lodge Stakes at Ascot in October 2013.
Thursday’s race was only his fourth start in almost three years, however, and his first since finishing second in a Group Three at Flemington last November, when he just missed the cut for the Melbourne Cup. He is among the entries for this year’s Melbourne Cup but could have alternative targets this time around.
Almodovar, seventh of 12 in the Group One International Stakes in August, was the 13-8 favourite for Thursday’s race, with Abdon, Frankie Dettori’s only ride on the day and his first at the track for five years, next in the betting at 9-4. Neither ran up to expectation, however, with Almodovar pulled up and dismounted a furlong from home after weakening suddenly and Abdon well beaten in third as Secret Number stayed on to beat Motdaw by one and three quarter lengths.
“He’s done it well,” Saeed bin Suroor, Secret Number’s trainer, said. “We gave him a good break with the plan of maybe going back to Australia with him and after that I think we will. I think he’s improving still and his last piece of work was very impressive.
“A mile and a half might suit him better still and he’s at his best with cut in the ground. He probably won’t get that in Australia but you never know, as long as it is safe ground. Physically he’s improving and he’s been gelded. I like him a lot.”
“We could run him in the Lexus [a Group Three handicap] at Flemington and then maybe in the Melbourne Cup.”
Almanzor, who passed an outstanding field to win the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown last weekend, has moved up to joint-fourth position in the Longines World’s Best Racehorses rankings in the revised ratings on Thursday.
Previously outside the select group of horses rated 120 or above, Almanzor has advanced to a mark of 127, 6lb behind California Chrome, the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner, who takes over from Japan’s A Shin Hikari, a wide-margin winner of the Group One Prix D’Ispahan, as the top-rated horse in the world.
Art Sherman’s five-year-old, who won the Dubai World Cup in March, moved up from a mark of 128 after his five-length success in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August. A Shin Hikari, who has not raced since finishing last when favourite for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, is joint-second on the list on a mark of 129, alongside Arrogate, who took the Travers Stakes at Saratoga by nearly 14 lengths, breaking a 37-year-old track record in the process. Arrogate is expected to line up against California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in early November.
Postponed, the 7-2 ante-post favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, is the top-rated British-trained horse in the latest rankings with a mark of 124. It seems increasingly likely that he will also be the top-rated horse in the field for the Arc, with Almanzor being steered instead towards the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot 13 days later.
Almanzor is still quoted for the Arc by most bookmakers at a top price of 7-1, but La Cressonniere, a stable companion of Almanzor at Jean-Claude Rouget’s yard, is now ahead of him in the list on 6-1. Almanzor is the clear favourite for the Champion Stakes, however, at best odds of 3-1.
