Equinties - CHALDEAN

Gm Equinauts 

Intern here. I’m taking over the newsletter whilst the boys are away at the sales. I’ve been asked to pass a note to all BGP Capital members - the reconciliation took longer than expected, but everyone should receive an email either today or tomorrow as confirmation of your payment and invitation to the BGP Capital community hub. Now, let’s dive in.   

Headline Roundup

This weekend saw the ‘return’ of the jumps at Chepstow, a proper performance in the Dewhurst, and a sprinting star bounce back to winning ways over in the States – all will be covered in today’s Monday Review. 

CHALDEAN is the one 

Andrew Balding’s CHALDEAN emulated his dad FRANKEL and grandad DUTCH ART on Saturday as he ground out victory in the Gr1 Darley Dewhurst to beat ROYAL SCOTSMAN by a head. 

Despite coming off the bridle early and just holding on at the end, this 550,000gns foal always looked like the winner and showed a good attitude to hold on – this would have come as no surprise to the Balding team who had been raving on about his work at home for a few days before the event. We also told BGP Capital members about this when he was still 8/1 in the market – you’re welcome ;). 

CHALDEAN has been cut to as short as 6/1 for next year’s 2000 Guineas, although Aidan O’Brien’s LITTLE BIG BEAR is still the ante-post favourite – Frankie Dettori was more than happy to share his excitement about the horse to ITV after the race. 

Next year looks like a proper year for the Classics already so hopefully it can live up to its potential. In the meantime, enjoy a picture of a 15-minute-old CHALDEAN at Whitsbury Manor Stud – proper cute. 

More: 

Charles’ Cesarewitch Crusade 

40 minutes after the Dewhurst, Charles Byrnes completed a successful raid of Newmarket’s premier handicap as RUN FOR OSCAR bolted up in the £200k Cesarewitch.  

Well-backed before the off and ante-post, the 144-rated horse over hurdles swept past the field to land a successful plot and gamble for connections, causing Racing Twitter to express their love for Byrnes’ training performance. 

The master plotter was happy enough to share the story behind getting their son of OSCAR into the race, saying that he could go back over hurdles in the future – he went off a well-fancied 5/1 for the Grade 2 bet365 Hurdle at Wetherby in 2021. 

Godolphin’s 19/1 two-year-old treble 

The boys in blue demonstrated the strength in depth they have with this season’s two-year-old stars as FLYING HONOURS and SILVER KNOT secured victories in the first two races at Newmarket on Saturday.  

The former, a SEA THE STARS colt out of a DUBAWI mare, stepped up to 1m2f effortlessly to take the Gr3 Zetland – he has been cut to 20/1 for next year’s Derby, a route trainer Charlie Appleby said would be the obvious one to go.  

"We weren't sure whether to run him again or put him away for the winter," said Appleby. "I'm glad we've run him and hopefully we can look towards some of those Derby trials in the spring." 

As for the latter, a half-brother to the 1.5 million guineas purchase Godolphin made at the yearling sales last week, SILVER KNOTT earnt himself quotes of 33/1 for the Guineas and 7/2 for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf after his one length success in the Autumn Stakes. 

He had to battle hard late on and seemed to potentially out-stay the eventual second EPICETUS over a mile – by the Derby winner LOPE DE VEGA out of a Gr1 winner over 1m2f, could he be one for longer distances further down the line? 

DESERT ORDER went on to win the Class 2 Too Darn Hot Nursery Handicap later on the card, completing the hattrick for Godolphin, William Buick, and Charlie Appleby.  

More: 

Quickfire news 

Over in the US, GOLDEN PAL put his King’s Stand disappointment behind him as he won the Gr2 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland – Wesley Ward’s four-year-old is as short as 2/1 to take the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with John Quinn’s HIGHFIELD PRINCESS half a point bigger at 5/2.  

Away from the action, Chepstow racecourse endured a Wi-Fi cut-out in many areas across the site on Saturday, forcing betting shops to close and bars, which had extremely long queues, to accept cash on a cashless site (an ARC policy across all of its tracks). 

Alan King’s staying powerhouse TRUESHAN was ruled out of the Gr2 Long Distance Cup on Champions Day yesterday and will instead head to the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp – he is soon becoming flat racing’s ALTIOR, isn’t he? 

And finally, a picture of someone who has got a permanent tattoo of JONBON on their leg was circulating around Twitter on the weekend. This got us thinking, if you were ever to get a horse racing-related tattoo, which horse would you most like to get? Comment underneath our tweet about today’s newsletter with your answer.