KEANE IRRESISTIBLE
Antarctic looks hot to trot in Newbury’s Diomed Stakes
STORMY ANTARCTIC is taken to have the last laugh on strong favourite King Of Comedy in the Group 3 Mansionbet’s Beaten By A Head Diomed Stakes (3.35. ITV4) at Newbury.
This time last year, King Of Comedy went under by just a neck in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot – and a reproduction of that form will make the jolly hard to beat.
Stormy Antarctic has a 5lb penalty to carry as a result of his four-length victory in a Group 2 test at the Capannelle racecourse in Rome last May.
But my selection has five successes at today’s level or above on his CV, and his record fresh – three wins and a second from his last four seasonal comebacks – suggests Tom Marquand’s mount will be ready to hit the ground running.
Recent rain in Berkshire will be music to the ears of Stormy Antarctic’s connections, and he can reward his backers by making the podium – at the very least.
NEWBURY CARD: PAGE 7
SISKIN performed a Houdini act to give tainer Ger Lyons and jockey Colin Keane a first Classic triumph with victory in a dramatic Tattersalls
Irish 2,000 Guineas last night.
Aidan O’brien saddled six of the 11 runners for the one-mile test, and Keane found himself behind a Ballydoyle wall racing to the final
Armory for a length-andthree-quarter margin. “What makes the good lads great and the good horses better than the ordinary horses – they are able to get themselves out of those scenarios,” said Co Meathbased Lyons.
“And that’s what they did
today.”