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I think this was LA’s last race over 10 furlongs. He should relish a true Arc test, at least I hope so.
Anmaat is just too frustrating to follow, especially on fast ground when there is someone who doesn’t idle and has a better turn of foot.
tbh I think Anmaat ran right up to his very best there, Ruby. He’s got an excellent strike rate too and with a turn of foot. Nothing wrong with his temperament. Just beaten by a better horse.
Value Is EverythingVery impressive considering the traffic problems he had up the straight and he looked to come on plenty for his seasonal debut at Sandown (Almaqam’s connections will obviously take great heart from this result to although he was in receipt of 3 lbs – will be interesting to see if they meet in the Eclipse).
LA was very warm before the start but under these conditions he will always be vunerable to the speedier types and even if he had run to the form of the Tattersalls Gold Cup with Anmaat he still would still have been comfortably beaten.
Him against FOG in the Juddmonte anyone – Gosden just said it wouldn’t be his choice even though he sees him as an out and out 10F horse.
We’ll see hoow it pans out but I didnt think it was a very strong POW going in, Anmaats a 7yo now and his CV isnt that glistening, its ok but he was a massive outsider for his G1 last season, hes a low 120s horse for good reason, and probably not even run to it there on that ground. Los Angeles just isnt a 10F horse and I’d be surprised if he even has the class for an Arc to be honest but could feasibly place again. He reminds me a bit of Highland Reel, tough horse, wins his races but when hes up against a top notch horse he aint winning.
Ombudsman now 2/1 favourite (shorter than Sosie) for the Eclipse with Hills judged by oddschecker. 4/1 Elsewhere. Cue Mike taking the 16/1 with Betway that (again judged by oddschecker) is still there.
Value Is Everything“Cue Mike taking the 16/1 with Betway that (again judged by oddschecker) is still there”.
I haven’t seen any sectional times but it did look like they went too fast. Although Los Angeles was dripping with sweat before going into the stalls. Something the four experts on SSR didn’t see fit to mention.
Just his 6th lifetime start as a 4 year old so not impossible to think that there is still improvement to come – he has now won on ground ranging from good to firm all the way through to soft and has won twice in France so travelling not seemingly an issue.
Eclipse, Juddmonte and both Champion Stakes now all likely to be on his agenda going forward.
Time was 1.89s fast although currently the Queens Vase was comparatively the fastest run race of the day so far (1.97s fast).
It was obviously an intended tactic from Ballydoyle as they knew LA’s best chance of winning was turning it into a stamina test to try and drag the speed out of the rest but the first 4 home all came from off the pace but I don’t think even at his best LA would have won today.
They have won a 10F G1 with him so I think it is time to step him back up in trip with the King George the obvious option for him enroute to the Arc via the Prix Foy and then maybe try him in a Japan Cup?
Sectionals make for interesting reading as LA didn’t appear to go too fast too early – only one of hist first 6F did he race faster than par, the other 5 were bang on par.
Quite clearly he hasn’t performed anywhere near his best but it would appear it wasn’t because they went too fast in the early stages.
The winner’s last furlong was pretty impressive at 11.82s.
I think Anmaat needs delivering in the last 25 yards. He finds little once he hits the front. Has a big race in him.
“Time was 1.89s fast although currently the Queens Vase was comparatively the fastest run race of the day so far (1.97s fast)”.
Racing Post Standard “fast” and “slow” figures are interesting, LD. But extremely frustrating.
In order to produce a fair comparison between races we need to divide each of those “fast by” figures by the number of furlongs (and yards) to show how “fast” they actually ran.ie When the 10f race has a fast by figure that is almost as good as a 1m6f race, then the 1m2f race is quite a bit faster per furlong.
Similarly, as the figures are shown: If the ground is “slow” then the longer the race the more seconds slow that race is likely to be.
Value Is EverythingI know it is not as easy as just saying that one race was run faster than another, it was more just an overall comment that I don’t think the early pace was the difference in LA underperforming.
Personally, I would argue that the heat might have been a much bigger contributing factor in his poor run, he wouldn’t have had to run in those type of conditions before today and he was sweating (like Ruling Court was before the St James’s Palace but not quite as bad) and as they were putting him in his stall he was a bit fractious and kicked out with one hind leg……so he might have been a touch dehydrated or the heat sapped some of his energy.
If we think Anmaat has run somewhere near his best then even an on song LA (who lets not forget had a fitness advantage over Anmaat in his narrow Tattersalls Gold Cup win over him) it is unlikely that he would have been good enough to win anyway.
The analysis of LA in the RP for the race I think is a pretty accurate assessment of him:
He’s also never struck as a natural 1m2f performer, especially on fast ground, and he should bounce back in the late summer/autumn, with the return to 1m4f likely to help. He’s a three-time Group 1 winner but just isn’t a top-notcher.
Fair enough LD. But LA has sweated up badly before in races he’s run very well – in both Derbys. At Epsom even giving trouble going into the stalls. So I wouldn’t take too much notice of him sweating.
Anmaat is another who runs well when sweating.
Whereas, Ruling Court had sweated up before, in the Acomb when – although running ok on form – didn’t run as well as connections were expecting. And was the same yesterday and disappointed. Whereas he was much more settled in the prelims when winning the Guineas. So sweating up was / is a negative for him.
I wouldn’t say Los Angeles “isn’t a top notcher”, at least not yet. Even when allowing for the fact a fit Anmaat would probably have beaten him in Ireland… And White Birch couldn’t get a run through either… In the Tatts Gold Cup at 10f he put up a rating just as good as he’d achieved at 12f last year… And he’s a big brute of a horse. The type to improve with age. I strongly suspect he’s going to improve again back at 12f. Either in the King George, Arc or Breeders Cup.
Value Is Everything“Anmaats a 7yo now and his CV isnt that glistening, its ok but he was a massive outsider for his G1 last season”,
TTM,
Being an outsider means nothing if the form book (including how the race was run, luck in running and sectionals) confirms he’s a good horse. Anmaat was progressive as a younger horse, just not immediately Group 1 class. Winning 4 handicaps including the John Smiths Cup in 2022. He then continued that progression. Winning first the Group 2 Dollar in October that year, before victory in the Group 1 Prix D’Isphahan in May 2023. However, a foot problem kept him off the track for 14 months. Many would have lost their sparkle. It is to his credit that not only did he come back as good as ever but actualy improved again. Much was made of Calandagan not getting a clear run in the Champion, but neither did Anmaat. The first two were clearly better than the distance back to the third… Besides, he’s confirmed the Champion was no fluke both in Ireland and today.Value Is Everything
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