Equinties - golden form lines

Gm Equinauts

Saturday’s best performance came from our strongest bet of the day in STEM.

He was an expensive breeze up and the rumours flying around Saturday morning was that he was pretty smart. Despite Hannon’s attempts to put punters away in his betting blog (he said STEM was good but would probably be a non-runner if the ground was too soft), we ignored him and recognised STEM’s pedigree as a mud lover.

And love the mud he did with Ryan Moore barely letting him off the steel for him to bolt up by 10 lengths. A good horse and it made for a good Saturday.

We’ll try and find more of those!

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

LONDON GOLD CUP FORM

Year after year, the London Gold Cup produces good horses because it’s one of the best handicaps of the Flat season.

This year, KING’S GAMBIT has performed to a mid-110 level in three Group races since, GOODWOOD ODYSSEY has won a Class 2 Goodwood handicap, and BRIONI has won a Class 3 handicap by some distance.

The other horse from the race to mention is PERSICA who further franked the form by winning the Listed Doonside Cup Stakes on Saturday, beating the well-backed ENFJAAR and returning EYDON.

The London Gold Cup really is a fascinating race. ISRAR won it in 2022, BAY BRIDGE in 2021, and TIME TEST in 2015. It’s a place that sees horses who potentially didn’t achieve Group success as a juvenile, start the season off well before going on to compete in top races at some of the top meetings.

PERSICA is an example of this. Bought for £200,000 as a yearling, he won a Salisbury novice and a Kempton nursery, but the one time he had a chance to show what he had under the bonnet (in the Goffs Premier Yearling Stakes at the York Ebor meeting), he didn’t and finished 10th.

Fast forward a year and he is a shadow of that former horse having run to a good level at Ayr on Saturday.

From the London Gold Cup, PONIROS (the second) is entered for the Cambridgeshire having finished a solid third behind THE REVEREND and FRENCH DUKE lto and could be interesting based on his form.

The great handicap has produced another great class of graduates. It’s always fun when something like this happens.

KING OF THE GLOBE

Globetrotters in racing arguably go under the radar.

The sheer effort it takes to get a horse travelling from country to country before running in Group 1 after Group 1 is immense, but because they travel the world, they end up missing some of the big European clashes.

Because of this, they are slightly underappreciated.

REBEL’S ROMANCE is the current globetrotter who is winning plenty of the top prizes around the world, and he added a second Group 1 Preis von Europa to his trophy cabinet yesterday.

It was a beatable field on Sunday, but nothing should be taken away from what he has achieved. One Preis von Berlin, two wins in this race, one Breeders’ Cup Turf, one Sheema Classic, and one Champions & Chater Cup in Hong Kong.

That’s a superb CV.

That’s not all. His win in Cologne further boosted the form of July’s Group 1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

BLUESTOCKING (2nd) won the recent Group 1 Prix Vermeille, SUNWAY (4th) finished third in the St Leger, and AUGUSTE RODIN (5th) has finished second to ECONOMICS in the Irish Champion Stakes.

That’s good form, and it all points to GOLIATH being a good horse rather than considering his success at Ascot a fluke. He’s off to the Japan Cup next after he recovers from a small setback.

Where next for him? Well, nothing has been mentioned, but he was a non-runner from last year’s Group 1 Prix von Bayern (November) due to soft ground, so that could be an option. Or, maybe he returns to the Breeders’ Cup?

Either day, he’s an exemplary son of DUBAWI and is giving Godolphin plenty of good days.

WEEKEND EYE-CATCHERS

ARAMRAM – SATURDAY 14.25 AYR

ALFA KELLENIC looked rather good in the Silver Cup at Ayr on Saturday, but nothing should be taken away from the runner-up – ARAMRAM – for Richard Hannon and Sean Levey.

With just nine runs under his belt, he is fairly unexposed and he chased home the runaway winner with some good grit.

He also drifted across the track, so it wasn’t the cleanest run to the line either. He has a low mark in the mid-80s and that’ll be exploited soon.

BILLBOARD STAR – SATURDAY 15.15 NEWBURY

All the racing from Newbury can be taken with a pinch of salt due to the heavy ground which is part of the reason why BILLBOARD STAR should be kept onside going forward.

The two-year-old by ADVERTISE has had a tough season as he had troubled routes through his last two races before the weekend.

Watching his run in the Mill Reef, he travelled powerfully into the race, but when it came to moving through the gears, he seemed to hate the ground and wobble off a true line.

Despite that, he still finished a solid third and a return to better ground (CHIPOTLE, his half-brother, did his best work on quick ground) will benefit him not.

He has some good form and shouldn’t be dismissed.

KODI LION - SATURDAY 17.35 NEWBURY

Our new hire Norm has followed this guy all season and we think he is still well handicapped. He had a troubled route at Newbury and then was steered round horses by James Doyle to be given too much to do. Versatile on ground, we should be winning quickly next season, if not once more this season if he runs.

RISK ON

After an easy winner yesterday,

We are waiting to see what the weather is doing to Sedgefield before we post any bets

Keep watching our X account @equinties

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