Global Weekly Preview - 03.07.15
J A McGrath
3 July, 2015
It is one thing to win the Derby, but what usually follows is an on-going quest for credibility, respect and a worthy place in racing history.
It is one thing to win the Derby, but what usually follows is an on-going quest for credibility, respect and a worthy place in racing history.
For the three-year-old who comes out on top at Epsom, that process essentially involves proof that he cannot just compete against the best older horses in training, at weight-for-age, but that he can beat them.The first true opportunity to do that comes in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park.
Golden Horn, the John Gosden-trained winner of this year's Investec Derby, looked a true professional on Epsom Downs early last month.
Anthony Oppenheimer's colt had already emphatically beaten his rivals in York's Dante Stakes and had given every indication that he was more street wise than those he was meeting from his own age group.
Not only that; the likeable Jack Hobbs then came out and emphatically franked the form by winning the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby by five lengths.
Admiral Rous, the gentleman credited with drawing up the weight-for-age scale, has had plenty of critics for more than a century, but he got one thing very right about the thoroughbred racehorse: the rate of improvement in the horse accelerates rapidly in the second half of its three-year-old season.
So, the big question is: has the (apparently) precocious Golden Horn still got more improvement to come? Or, will the likes of Jack Hobbs, in particular, and Storm The Stars, Giovanni Canaletto and others, in general, have his beating in the next few months?
The Coral-Eclipse should go a long way to providing the answer. Golden Horn is the only three-year-old in Saturday's G1 field and he is set to receive 11lb in weight from four-year-old The Grey Gatsby, already a dual Group One winner.
From the evidence provided at Epsom, The Grey Gatsby faces too big a task. The three-year-old should have his measure.
If there is one to provide some excitement in the home straight, it could well be Golden Horn's stablemate Western Hymn, a colt who loves Sandown with its stiff uphill finish.
In New York, the Independence Day meeting at Belmont Park is a cracker in prospect. A field of nine line up for the Belmont Derby Invitational over a mile and a quarter on Turf, and Tonalist faces five rivals in the Suburban Handicap.
But the focus for Godolphin is the stable's excellent chance of winning the G1 Belmont Oaks Invitational with the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Sentiero Italia, the mount of Luis Saez. The daughter of Medaglia d'Oro is reportedly in fine form for this 10-furlong Turf test and is expected to run well.
