Poet’s Word can have final say in race of season
APART from Jessica Harrington’s outstanding filly Alpha Centauri, this year’s Classic generation have seemed unexceptional and Poet’s Word can confirm that impression by giving Michael Stoute a seventh victory in today’s Juddmonte International, the main attraction on the first day of York’s Ebor meeting.
The five-year-old has really come to himself this season, winning the Brigadier Gerard on his return from Dubai and then, under today’s jockey James Doyle, adding the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the King George, where he and stable companion Crystal Ocean came a long way clear of the field.
That victory, sealed by the combination of a decisive turn of foot and warrior spirit, means that Poet’s Word is now ranked higher than any horse in the world except the Australian wonder mare Winx.
However, today’s task looks much tougher than either the King George or, with hindsight, Royal Ascot, when Cracksman failed to show up. Either way, if it comes down to a battle, he is unlikely to shirk it.
It would be a major surprise if any of the other three older horses were to turn him over but the three-year-olds present a different problem in that he has to give them 7lb.
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John Gosden’s Roaring Lion looks the most potent threat. He won the Dante over course and distance impressively, was not disgraced when failing to stay in the Derby, before beating Aidan O’Brien’s Saxon Warrior in the Eclipse.
If any other trainer were to go nearly six weeks without a Group One winner nobody would bat an eyelid, but when that trainer is O’Brien it represents something of a drought, and he will be hoping Saxon Warrior can end it.
The English 2,000 Guineas winner comes here a bit fresher than he did going to the Eclipse but, having had the run of that race, it is hard to see him reversing the form with Roaring Lion.
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“Obviously he had a bit of an easy time after Sandown, but he seems to be good form,” O’Brien said.
A surprise winner of the Irish Derby, Joseph O’Brien’s Latrobe runs in the colours of the stable’s Melbourne Cup winner, Rekindling.
“He’s in good form and after York we’ ll make a plan for the rest of the season,” the younger O’Brien said. “He has a number of different options for the rest of the year and we’ ll know if our trip is 10 or 12 furlongs.”
Gosden’s Without Parole should probably be forgiven for his tame effort in the Sussex Stakes, which has been blamed on having to make his own running. Frankie Dettori, who is unbeaten on him, is also back in the saddle. His sire Frankel was an emotional winner of this race in 2012 and, it seems, most of his progeny like to go further than a mile so the step up in trip might also help him find his feet again in what is potentially the race of the season.
Wells Farhh Go won on this card last year and looks primed for the St Leger but he and Cross Counter, which broke the Goodwood track record in the Gordon Stakes when making the running, are likely to have an argument about who sets the fractions. Logic suggests they might set it up for Ballydoyle’s Kew Gardens. (© Daily Telegraph, London)