Equinties - one and done

Gm Equinauts

Our ante-post section ‘A Look Ahead’ has previewed 9 weekend races finding two winners in IBERICO LORD 8/1 and CEMHAAN 12/1 (25/1 sp)as well as placed in JIPCOT, RAPPER 40/1 and SAM BROWN at 16’s.

It’s back today and we take a look at Sandown’s big one on Saturday.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

ONE AND DONE?

It’s always fascinating to see how many Ballydoyle horses rock up to the Newmarket Classics. Last year it was two, the year before was two, and in 2021 was three. However, Aidan O’Brien is planning on sending CITY OF TROY alone to the 2000 Guineas as his stablemates will head across the ocean.

The unbeaten Group 1 winner is odds-on to land the first Classic of the season, and the confidence behind him is seemingly strong as HENRY LONGFELLOW and DIEGO VELAZQUEZ are set to head to France for the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

O’Brien said: "All is good with City Of Troy at the moment and everything has gone very well up until this point.

"He's been away to work a few times and we were very happy with what we saw from him on those away days. Everything went well and he hasn't put a foot wrong over the last few weeks.

"The plan at the moment is for City Of Troy to go to Newmarket on his own and Henry Longfellow will go to France for the French Guineas along with Diego Velazquez."

More: https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/guineas-festival/he-hasnt-put-a-foot-wrong-over-the-last-few-weeks-2000-guineas-favourite-city-of-troy-continues-to-impress-aidan-obrien-aTeYg1p7bNp3/ 

A MAIDEN TO FOLLOW

We nearly included this in Monday’s eyecatchers section, but we left it out as there are enough British horses to track. However, after listening to a few bits of content from Betfair Racing, we want to highlight what could have been a well-above-average maiden run in Ireland on Sunday.

The second race at the Curragh on Sunday, a six-furlong maiden, saw COWARDOFTHECOUNTY beat WHISTLEJACKET with the third, MOUNT PARNASSUS (a €150,000 purchase), six lengths behind the runner-up.

On the eye, the front two look like very smart animals, and when listening to the Weighed In podcast on Monday, Kevin Blake – racing manager to Joseph O’Brien – was purring over him, as he said: “I thought he was very, very good. He had really been putting his hand up at home in his last few bits of work. All the chat was that the Ballydoyle horse, WHISTLEJACKET, was the best of their early ones, so it would have been tough to have confidence going into it.

“The time stood up very well – he could be a really nice one. There’s a chance he might not run until Royal Ascot, but he definitely won’t have more than one in between then and now if indeed he does have one. He’s the sharpest two-year-old that Joseph has had in my time which is pretty much all of Joseph’s time!”

So, off Blake’s comments, one can see he’s a nice horse, and this was further boosted by Ryan Moore’s comments about the runner-up in a recent interview with Blake.

He said: “His brother [LITTLE BIG BEAR] got beat in that race and he was probably beaten by a very good horse on ground that was heavy. I know our horse will improve for a bit of nicer ground. They [the first two maiden races at the Curragh] were two pretty decent contests – I’m probably a bit biased, but they were probably the best two two-year-old races we’ve seen so far this season.”

You’ve heard it from the people who know so watch out for those two maidens that occurred at the Curragh on Sunday.

A LOOK AHEAD

As it’s the final weekend of the UK jumps season we’re going to take a look at Sandown’s Bet365 Gold Cup, 15.35 Saturday.

KITTY’S LIGHT heads the field looking to defend his title and we can understand his favouritism. He ran a cracker in the Grand National and he is primed for this time of year every season, though he is five pounds higher than last season’s success.

THREEUNDERTHRUFIVE is the next in the market fresh from his success over RAPPER at Ascot in February. Connections briefly pondered the National with him but decided to keep him for this, and despite his mark of 156, he is in the form of his life.

He was classy that day, though 156 is admittedly steep and one could question the Paul Nicholls form. He may have a SR of 21%, but he is throwing everything at the wall and a few fancied runners are finding it tough to run to form.

NICK ROCKETT heads four Willie Mullins entries and he looks to have the best profile of the bunch being a progressive Graded winner. He has a rating of 147 which looks lenient considering he ran into CORBETTS CROSS and MONTY’S STAR on chase debut and then beat TACTICAL MOVE by seven lengths after that (TACTICAL MOVE has finished second to SPILLANE’S TOWER in a Grade 1 since, so that form is good).

Connections also missed the National Hunt Chase to send him to the Irish National, so that could be a clue to say he is nicely treated but there is a big question mark over his staying ability.

One with absolutely no question mark over hist staying ability is LE MILOS. As we said yesterday, Dan Skelton has primed this lad for the Bet365 Gold Cup and he’ll need him to be on form if he has any chance of taking home the trainers’ championship. A mark of 149 is on the steep side, but he won the Coral Gold Cup – when beating CORACH RAMBLER - off 146 and he has won on good before, so he should be going close here.

AMIRITE has been promising to win one of these big handicaps for a while, yet he has failed to do so. He potentially found the test of a National too testing lto and he’s had just the three handicap runs, so he could be one flying under the radar.

KINONDO KWETU was having his first run back for 168 days when he finished fourth over 3m1f at Aintree 14 days ago, so he should come on for the run and a mark of 144 is workable. He also has a lot of form on good and he finished just three lengths behind TWIG in 2023 Summer Cup Handicap – TWIG is an 11lb better horse and now has form with MEETINGOFTHEWATERS and CHIANTI CLASSICO.

At the bigger prices, WEVEALLBEENCAUGHT’s best run of the season came right at the start when he finished behind FLOORING PORTER and BROADWAY BOY at Cheltenham.

Considering he ran into a two-time Stayers’ Hurdle winner (and subsequent Stayers’ Hurdle runner-up) as well as a proper Graded chaser that day, a mark of 132 could make him thrown in. The Twiston-Davies were purring about him for the Ultima, but conditions probably went against him and it was his first run for three months, so he has every right to come on for the outing.

Verdict: We think our preview selection RAPPER has another chance if the Cheltenham fall didn’t do any harm but we shan’t gamble on that. The vote today goes to a very, very ground dependant horse in KINONDU KWETU. He loves fast ground and might just get that at Sandown Saturday if the weather holds off. He would have beaten TWIG in last years Summer Cup had he not belted one and at those weights, it puts him right in the mix. He is 16/1 but no doubt will be relatively unloved Saturday due to the defending champ KITTYS LIGHT and Mullins stealing the limelight meaning you can probably afford to bet on the day when the going stick has given us the green light.

RISK ON

The racing looks pretty tough today so we’ll keep our powder dry.

UPDATE

Click below to meet the machine. Our update on the newsletter horse is (finally) ready and there will be more to come as he increases his work load and starts to turn into a race horse.

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