Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULYSSES TO TARGET BREEDERS’
ULYSSES was yesterday cut to 15-8 favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on 4 November after soft ground ruled the Sir Michael Stoute trainee out of tomorrow’s Champion Stakes at Ascot. The Coral-eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International hero was as short as 11-4 market leader for the 10-furlong feature after attracting heavy support on Wednesday. But, with Ascot’s clerk of the course Chris Stickels forecasting soft going for British Champions Day, Stoute has opted to send his four-year-old straight to America. “The ground played a big part,” admitted the trainer. “We thought we would look at the Champion Stakes, but we never said, ‘We are going to the Champion Stakes.’ “We saw what the weather might do, and it looks like the ground could be testing, so we have decided he will go to America. “You’ve only got to look at his action. He has as good an action as any horse we have in the yard and he bounces off top-of-theground,” added Stoute, whose stable star finished fourth to Highland Reel in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. John Gosden’s Cracksman is now a bestpriced 2-1 favourite to beat nine opponents in the £1.3million race. made it two wins from two attempts over fences with an 11-length victory in the Grade 3 Buck House Novice Chase at Punchestown — one of six winners on at the Co Kildare track for Gordon Elliott. TODAY’S fixture at Haydock was cancelled yesterday afternoon after an inspection showed the racing surface to be waterlogged.