Appleby’s Derby hero out to shine in Eclipse

MASAR is bidding to become only the fourth Epsom Derby winner in the past 50 years to win the Coral-Eclipse Stakes as a three-year-old.

Charlie Appleby’s stable star is hot favourite to achieve that goal.

But it’s not a gimme.

The mile-and-a-quarter Eclipse is traditionally the first opportunity for the current crop of three-year-olds to face the older generation in a Group One middle-distance event, and historically it takes a top-class Derby winner to win it.

A look at the list of three-year-olds who have gone on to land the Derby/ Eclipse double tells you just how tough it generally is for the younger generation.

In 1968 that season’s Derby hero Sir Ivor was beaten by the previous year’s Epsom winner Royal Palace.

Battle

But three years later a truly great Derby winner – Mill Reef – won the race as a three-year-old in fantastic style. It would then be 18 years until the next one, Nashwan in 1989, and we had to wait another 20 years before Sea The Stars beat Aidan O’Brien’s Rip Van Winkle by a length in a battle up the Sandown hill.

The last Derby hero to score in his Classic season was Golden Horn in 2015.

So, is history against Masar this year? There are plenty of examples of Derby winners who have come up short. Reference Point was beaten by Mtoto in 1987, while Erhaab finished third in 1994 behind Ezzoud. Benny The Dip was second to Pilsudski in 1997, Motivator got muscled out of the winner’s circle by Oratorio in 2005 and Authorized was odds-on when Ryan Moore took Notnowcato across to the stands’ rail to score a clever victory in 2007.

For all of that Appleby is bullish about his charge’s prospects.

“It should be a great race,” said Appleby. “I’m pleased Saxon Warrior is running. The Eclipse is known as one of the summer spectacles, so I’m pleased for the race.

“From our point of view we won’t be running away from anything and we think Masar is the one to beat.”

It certainly looks that way. And there is another key factor that leans in the Godolphin runner’s favour – the older horses in this year’s race don’t look up to much.

The best of the three in the field appears to be the Richard Faheytrained Forest Ranger – winner of the Group Two Huxley Stakes at Chester.

And it would be more than a little galling if Masar’s stablemate Hawkbill rediscovered the form that gave him his biggest success in the Group One Sheema Classic at Meydan during the winter months.

Risk

That only leaves his peers from the class of 2018.

Aidan O’Brien admits to taking a risk running Qipco 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior so soon after being beaten into third in the Irish Derby last Saturday behind Latrobe.

“Obviously he only ran last week, so we haven’t done much, but he seems to be in good form,” said O’Brien.

“Obviously we’re observing him very closely. If there was anything negative we’d flag it up straight away.

“We’re taking a bit of a chance running him back so close, but we’re happy with him.”

We will see who ends up the happiest by the end of this afternoon.