Unlike the owner’s golden boy Frankel, the fortunes have not been kind to
Bated Breath, and Thursday’s heavy rainfall at York was not welcome in the Roger
Charlton camp ahead of Friday’s Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes sprinting five furlongs
at York’s Ebor meeting.
Still to win that elusive top-level contest, the Dansili five-year-old
certainly has the ability to do so, as he showed when cracking Haydock’s track
record in the Group 2 Temple Stakes on May 26. Withdrawn from the Group 1 July
Cup due to the testing ground, after recording an admirable but frustrating
fourth runner-up placing in Group 1 company in Royal Ascot’s Group 1 King’s
Stand Stakes on June 19, the Juddmonte speedster will need the drying
weather to return.
“It’s not ideal, but what can we do,” Khalid Abdullah’s racing Manager Teddy
Grimthorpe told the Racing Post. “The plan is still to run, I suppose if
it got really bad then we’d think about it, but we’ll wait and see and look at
it tomorrow.”
That also applies to Ortensia, who showed the class her native Australian
audiences are accustomed to when winning the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan on
March and Goodwood’s Group 2 King George Stakes on August 3.
“No good news for horses wanting dry ground tomorrow,” trainer Paul Messara
tweeted of the Testa Rossa mare. “Far softer than I expected. Would be rated as
heavy in Australia. So frustrating.”
Sole Power, who upset Starstangledbanner in this race when 100-1 two years
ago, also needs it to ride quick and has a neck margin to turn around with Bated
Breath in the Temple. A length behind that rival when third on ground, which was
undoubtedly too soft in the King’s Stand, the Kyllachy five-year-old he has
missed all outings subsequently as the British summer has wrought havoc.
As for the three-year-olds, unbeaten Pearl Secret remains in the unexposed
and exciting category, and showed he can handle dig in the surface when taking a
five-furlong handicap when it was officially described as heavy in only his
second start on April 27. Also successful over this track and trip May 17, the
Compton Place chestnut registered a snug neck success in the listed Scurry
Stakes at Sandown on June 16.
“He was plagued with sore shins, but since we started to do some serious work
with him at the back-end of last year, we thought he could run a bit,” trainer
David Barron remarked. “He’s always shown an awful lot at home, and on his last
run at Sandown I thought it was a good performance.
“He used to be a little bit too exuberant and keen for his own good, and it’s
taken a long while to settle down — we worked him all winter just to keep a lid
on him. He’s in tremendous form and everything has been fine with him. Probably
one day he’s going to get beaten, and the biggest thing against him at York is
he’s the inexperienced one, the boy who is taking on the men, and he will get no
quarter there. He is definitely the quickest horse I’ve ever trained.”
Earlier in the day, Morawij was just run out of the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes
at Goodwood most recently on July 31, but he has an extra furlong to put matters
right in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes.
Previously, the Roger Charlton-trained son of Exceed and Excel had looked a
smart sprinter in the making when scoring by 2 1/4 lengths in Sandown’s listed
National Stakes over five furlongs on July 6, and his conditioner is keeping the
faith.
“Morawij has been in great form at home since Goodwood and I am looking
forward to running him over a flat six furlongs,” Charlton said. “The race
should suit and he should run very well.”
Defying a penalty in these juvenile contests is a tough call, but when it
comes to toughness Heavy Metal is in advance of many of his contemporaries.
Unplaced in both the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 19 and Group
2 July Stakes at Newmarket on July 12, the bay son of Exceed and Excel rebounded
to win the Group 2 Richmond Stakes over this six-furlong trip at Goodwood last
out on August 2.
The re-opposing Cay Verde was 2 1/2 lengths behind in third in the Richmond,
but the Bahamian Bounty colt captured the Marble Hill Stakes at The Curragh in
late May.
The most inexperienced runner in the field is Blaine, who impressed with his
attitude when making all to win a course-and-distance maiden in his debut on
July 14.
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