Yahoo Finance Talking Horses: Ilaraab can excel in Ebor of bewildering possibilities
York Saturday TV tipping guide
The Skybet Ebor Handicap is the closest thing British Flat racing has to the Grand National – a race for the punters as the climax of the meeting that bears its name – and it comes with almost as bewildering an array of possibilities.
Hamish is a worthy favourite for the latest renewal, having won the Melrose over track and trip two years ago, but needs to prove his fitness after 428 days away from the track.
Lightly raced Humanitarian could easily find enough improvement to win but also has a long absence to overcome, while Sonnyboyliston looks best of the Irish-trained runners but still needs to progress from his latest run.
Related: Egan puts International Stakes glory above cash after York win atop Mishriff
That leaves Ilaraab, a stable companion of Hamish, as an interesting bet at around 12-1. He was a ready winner over 12 furlongs at York in May, had excuses when upped to Group Two company at Royal Ascot and the extra two furlongs should draw out further improvement.
York 1.50 Soft ground forced Saeed bin Suroor to scratch Real World from his intended first run in Group company at Haydock last month but the conditions will be much more to his liking on the Knavesmire as he attempts to continue his rapid progress so far this season. A runaway win in the Royal Hunt Cup has been franked several times since by the also-rans, and though the lack of an obvious pace-setter here is a slight concern, Real World was pretty much in a race of his own from three furlongs out at Ascot.
Sandown 2.05 Reach For The Moon, by the Derby and Arc winner Sea The Stars out of a Sadler’s Wells mare, is one of the most promising juveniles to emerge from the Queen’s breeding operation for some years and he progressed from a close second at the Royal meeting to get off the mark with plenty in hand at Newbury last month. The four-length runner-up there was Harrow, a winner at York on Thursday, and it will be disappointing if he Reach For The Moon cannot confirm his potential here.
York 2.25 The “three-year-old’s Ebor” and a deep and competitive heat in its own right. Dhushan will be popular after an unlucky run at the Royal meeting and Marshall Plan has been threatening a big run in a race of this type for a while, but at the likely odds, Oman is the eye-catcher at around 20-1. Ralph Beckett’s gelding has been improving steadily this year and put up a career-best to win over this trip at Chester last time.
Sandown 2.40 Saffron Beach was a little disappointing last time but she had had a busy start to the campaign and returns here after a six-week break. A return to anything like her early-season form, including a one-length second in the 1,000 Guineas, would probably be enough.
York 3.00 Little has gone Primo Bacio’s way in Group One company on her last two starts. She was still within a length and a half of Snow Lantern in the Falmouth, though, and will appreciate this easing in grade.
Sandown 1.00 Saaheq 1.30 Liamarty Dreams 2.05 Reach For The Moon 2.40 Saffron Beach 3.15 Poet Of Life 3.45 Silent Escape 4.15 Alezan
Chester 1.10 Shouldavbeenmore 1.40 Ffion 2.10 Yesyes 2.45 Sadmah 3.20 King Of Stars 3.50 Batraan 4.20 Gabrial The One
York 1.50 Real World (nb) 2.25 Oman 3.00 Primo Bacio 3.35 Ilaraab (nap) 4.10 Thunder Love 4.45 Qaader 5.20 A Pint Of Bear
Newton Abbot 2.55 Chez Hans 3.30 Litterale Ci 4.05 Diligent 4.40 Cremant 5.15 Dogon 5.50 Ragamuffin 6.20 No No Maestro
Chelmsford City 6.00 Aces 6.30 Femme Friendly 7.00 Ernie’s Valentine 7.30 Claim The Crown 8.00 Stylish Performer 8.30 Maysong 9.00 Mahanakhon Power
Lingfield Park 5.05 Four Feet 5.40 Homer’s Girl 6.15 Hoodwinker 6.50 Maketh Believeth 7.20 Love Me Likearock 7.50 Napping
Dettori brings Stradivarius to concert pitch for thrilling win
A great horse race does not need a big field, a huge purse or a sunny afternoon. It just needs two well-matched horses and riders that refuse to concede defeat and a furlong or two of ground for them to fight it out, and the extended struggle between Stradivarius and Spanish Mission in the final quarter-mile of the Lonsdale Stakes here on Friday deserves to be remembered as one of the very best.
It felt a little like a scripted prize-fight as first one horse and then the other edged its nose in front, before Stradivarius, a great but ageing champion, finally went a head up a couple of strides from the line to the delight of the packed grandstands. The crowd was a long way short of the 100,000 plus who were on the Knavesmire to see The Flying Dutchman beat Voltigeur in the “great match” in 1851 but the excitement, with spectator-less racing still fresh in the memory, was just as intense.
A great race does not necessarily need a famous jockey either. But it helps, and the fact that Frankie Dettori was in the winner’s saddle, as he has been for 13 of Stradivarius’s 14 career victories, could only add to the reception as he paraded back past the stands and then trotted into the winner’s enclosure, with a perfect five-from-five record at York still intact.
“When we went across the line and they announced the result, there was a big roar from the crowd, an explosion,” Dettori said. “He only does enough when he hits the front and William [Buick] wouldn’t go away. He passed me, I passed him back. Then he passed me again, but I think he knows where the line is and, boom, he put his head down right on the line.
“My heart lost a few beats, I’ll be honest, but it was a tremendous horse race and the reception he got was so special.”
It is unusual, to say the least, for a seven-year-old “entire” – a male horse that has not been gelded – to be competing and winning in top quality races, but for as long as Stradivarius can deliver performances like this one, his next career as a stallion will be on hold.
“It was a proper race for everyone to watch,” said John Gosden, who trains Stradivarius with his son, Thady. “He’s phenomenal. To have won four Goodwood Cups, three [Ascot] Gold Cups, three Lonsdales now, three Yorkshire Cups, a Doncaster Cup. All those miles of racing, never mind miles of training.
“He’s not a horse you train hard and I let him train himself. If you get a great footballer and they come to your club, don’t start thinking when they’re 30 or 32 years old that you’re going to start drilling them. They’ll tell you what to do with your management and it’s the same, you let him train the way he wants to.
“He still enjoys his training, he’s very enthusiastic. The horse will tell us [about retirement], it’s not our decision as long as he’s enjoying his racing and training, which he is. He’s a very happy horse, he has a very good sense of humour as well. As long as you’ve got all of that, then fine, we keep racing. The moment that seems to be fading, that’s when we’ll stop.”
Dettori was well backed to complete a memorable double an hour later, as Golden Pal, trained in the United States by Wesley Ward, went to post as a 5-2 shot for the Nunthorpe Stakes. After a typically fast break, however, Golden Pal could not establish a clear lead and he folded tamely as Winter Power, a three-year-old filly trained just over 20 miles from the track by Tim Easterby, went clear from two out to record the first Group One win of her career.
“She’s unbelievably fast,” said Silvestre de Sousa, the retained rider for King Power Racing, Winter Power’s owner. “When she hits the gates right, she’s really good. She did that here first time this year [in May] and I thought I hadn’t sat on anything as fast as her.
“King Power … have a great horse for the future. This is her first Group One, so hopefully we can keep it going.”
Ward, who suggested before the race that Golden Pal was at least the equal of any sprinter he has trained, was at a loss to explain his poor performance. “He’s just awesome and for him to run like this today is a bit of a head-scratcher,” Ward said. “He kind of folded up. We’ll see what transpires but I haven’t lost faith in him, but I am disappointed today.”
