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I’m very confused by this market, very confused indeed.
Rite of Passage is favourite the majority of firms as he bids to follow up last year’s victory, but he hasn’t run since and holds entries for nothing but the Gold Cup itself and the Irish Leger. Yorkshire Cup entries out tomorrow so we’ll see if he’s in there but I doubt it somehow.
Fame and Glory is unquestionably the class horse and will finally step up to the trip I’ve been willing him to run over. Quite why he’s available at 6/1 is baffling. He’ll run in the Saval Beg next after winning the Vintage Stakes (following the exact path Yeats took en route to his 2nd Gold Cup). He only finished 8 1/2L of Age of Aquarius in the Derby, the horse who almost beat Rite of Passage, narrowly going down in the final 100 yards.
Askar Tau will run but is nowhere near good enough, St Nicholas has zero chance of turning up, Kite Wood didn’t stay last season and lost his way, Kasbah Bliss might turn up but was soundly beaten last season and he’s 9 now, his best days are long gone.
Sans Frontieres is obviously the one left over and he’ll be running in the Yorkshire Cup on Friday. He should get the trip, but will he be good enough to beat Fame and Glory? I’m not sure. Yorkshire Cup winners have an atrocious record in the Gold Cup recently, a far cry from the back end of last decade.
There has to be a concern that he might not turn up to try and ‘protect’ his Melbourne Cup handicap mark too.
Interesting to see if something comes out of the Henry II Stakes at Sandown at the end of the month.
I would not be surprised if Fame did not stay his performance over 13f was less than convincing…
Liked the second horse Nebula Storm I reckon he goes for the Irish Leger though and Oxx took that with ALandi a few years back
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Yeats was less than convincing first time out more than once and Fame And Glory was pretty average when making his seasonal debut in 2010. Fame And Glory has to be the most solid of leading conteders for the 2011 GC.
Rite Of Passage ….. Is soundness his biggest problem? He might be on an Irish Leger/MC mission and be missing the GC altogether.
Admiral, he’s got more stamina in his pedigree that any horse I’ve ever seen while looking at Derby breeding. His sire and damsire stamina index figures total 23.9. The fact that he’s been successful at the top level over 10 1/2f is a testament to his ability. He’ll stay all day, don’t worry about that.
His sire won the Arc, his damsire won the Derby, his dam was campaigned over a mile at 2 and 11f at 3 and a full sister to Golan Heights who twice ran over 14f. Her dam was an unraced German bred (generally very stoutly bred) horse and was by Windwurf, 3-time Group 1 winner over 12f and German St. Leger winner.
It is just ridiculous how much stamina is in there. Authorized was also very stoutly bred. He’d have won the Leger doing cartwheels and probably would’ve gotten the Gold Cup trip too.
There would only be one winner of the Gold Cup if Paul Nicholls decided to run the best horse he has ever trained.
If he were to run he would overshadow everything at Royal Ascot including Henry Cecil’s flying machine.
I doubt Big Bucks has the speed on the flat to win a G1 cup race even if it was over 2 miles.
Fair point re Fame and Glory he has always been a favourite of mine his consistency is second to none he has never run a bad race in his life. I read somewhere that he is a favourite of the owners, Mr Derrick Smith and rightly so the horse is a real genuine trier.
He may turn out in time to be GC winner I guess I am in denial still hoping he will become a top class 12f horse. To be fair he has won a couple of top G1s over that distance but he just lacks turn of foot at the end when the non stayers switch it up a gear and he plugs on at the same pace.
I am sure Rite of Passages win was a fluke, was gutted when he collared Aquarius
The French horse Gentoo has real volatility in his form, but if he fires on the day, he could win it.
I’d have to take a different view to most here and say that Rite Of Passage will more than likely be hard to beat again if he runs. We know he stays which can’t be said for a lot of the rest. Fame And Glory is undoubtedly a top class animal and it would be interesting to see who would come out on top between the two. I wouldn’t back either at this stage, are we certain that they are definitely being aimed at the race
I couldn’t put you off him at the prices anyway Zarkava! At the prices cases could be made for the front two being each way bets to nothing. I’d still like to see Rite of Passage over 3 miles with hurdles in his way though
Neither Rite of Passage nor Sans Frontieres entered in the Yorkshire Cup. Effectively just the Saval Beg and Henry II Stakes left as preps.
Zarky, what do you think of Admiral of The Red? Only picked him for his name but he bolted up apparently over 12f could be a promising stayer in the future?
Midas Touch was set to run in this race but got injured
I would have liked to see that Oxx Horse in Tsui’s Colours run in this race
Midas Touch was set to run in Yorkshire Cup this race but got injured
I would have liked to see that Oxx Horse in Tsui’s Colours run in this race
have Ballydoyle still got Midas Touch then? He was a nice enough horse last season but never really top class at any distance.
Zarky, what do you think of Admiral of The Red? Only picked him for his name but he bolted up apparently over 12f could be a promising stayer in the future?
His half-siblings stayed 15f, but I don’t know. Going purely on stamina indexes I’d say getting further than 12f is doubtful, but he wasn’t stopping. Has no Derby entry and wasn’t entered in the Dewhurst. Not one I particularly want to follow.
There was consensus about Fame And Glory’s bid for Gold Cup success at Royal Ascot after he was the subject of strong support and cut into clear favouritism by a number of firms.
Totesport spokesman George Primarolo reported "significant support" behind the bookmaker’s decision to cut Fame And Glory into 4-1 (from 6-1), deposing of previous 5-1 favourite Rite Of Passage.
Paddy Power go 7-2 (from 5-1) about the Aidan O’Brien-trained five-year-old and Ladbrokes, who so often have their finger on the pulse with all things Ballydoyle, also shortened up Fame And Glory to 4-1 (from 5-1).
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