CORNTO BE WILD

Gosden ace can tame rivals in Spring Lodge

HATS OFF to TRICORN in the Spring Lodge Handicap (1.50) at Newmarket this afternoon.

The John Gosden-trained runner didn’t make it to the racecourse as a juvenile – but he made up for lost time as a three-year-old in 2017.

After a debut second at Kempton in February, Tricorn went one better at Wolverhampton a fortnight later.

Stepping into handicap company, my selection scored off a mark of 75 at Newcastle the following month, before defying a 10lb rise in the weights to complete the hat-trick at Newmarket’s Craven fixture last April.

Three weeks on from a second place at Chelmsford in early June, Tricorn ran a fine third in the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot, beaten a couple of lengths by the winner Bless Him.

James Doyle’s mount returned seventh of eight in the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes at Newmarket in July – and hasn’t been seen since.

But the word from the Suffolk town’s gallops is that Tricorn, who has had the snip in the interim, is ready to recapture his sparkle from the first half of the campaign.

A first attempt at nine furlongs should show the Gosden runner in his best light yet, and his handicap mark of 105 looks within range.

The Group 2 Dunaden Jockey Club Stakes (2.55) is at the mercy DEFOE. of

Under Roger Varian’s guiding hand, the grey son of Dalakhani progressed from victories in handicaps at Newbury and York to score in Listed grade at Hamilton, before booking his place in the St Leger line-up with a three-quarter-length margin in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury in August.

Defoe blew out in the oldest Classic, beating just one home behind Capri, but his fluent success in Newbury’s Group 3 John Porter Stakes last month hinted at more to come. HAVANA Karl Burke’s returning GREY

is very much the one to beat in the Group 3 Longholes Palace House Stakes (2.20).

One of the speediest juveniles around last season, with his four wins including a length-andthree-quarter supremacy over Invincible Army in Glorious Goodwood’s Molecomb Stakes, the grey enjoys a class edge over his eight foes. MORI

At Goodwood, is expected to show the benefit of a wind operation by capturing the Listed Matchbook VIP Daisy Warwick Fillies’ Stakes (2.05), while DONNCHA,

finally getting some respite from the BHA assessor, looks best in the Matchbook Handicap (2.40).