OCEAN’S SWELL
WILLIAM BUICK will partner the probable favourite in Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes after all.
Buick appeared to have been denied the chance to head the market in the midsummer showpiece when his first-time Derby winner Masar was ruled out for the season with a leg injury.
Instead, Buick has picked up the excellent spare ride on Crystal Ocean, the impressive winner of the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and one of two Sir Michael Stoute-trained horses vying for favouritism.
Crystal Ocean has been ridden to all three short-priced wins this season by Ryan Moore. But the reemergence of Derby disappointment Kew Gardens as a serious player, in the wake of a victory in the Group One Grand Prix de Paris, has left Moore siding with the top Aidan O’Brien runner.
Buick’s booking on Crystal Ocean for the first time leaves the way clear for James Doyle to maintain his association with the other Stoute challenger, Poet’s Word, who was Cracksman’s surprise conqueror in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Like Buick, Doyle is having a great season and followed up riding his 1,000th career winner (Himself) at Newmarket on Friday by downing Oaks winner Forever Together aboard Sea Of Class in the Irish equivalent on Saturday.
Frankie Dettori will learn today whether he is just an interested observer in the stands at Ascot or a potential key protagonist.
Dettori appeals this morning at the BHA in London against the 10day careless riding ban he picked up riding Angel’s Hideaway at the Newmarket July meeting.
The Italian would need a full reprieve to find himself back on the Ascot programme but bookies are betting odds-on that he could get the ban reduced, which would allow one of racing’s top draws to feature at Glorious Goodwood where he is the leading jockey.
Dettori’s ban runs from July 27 to August 5. The King George is on July 28 and Goodwood begins on Tuesday, July 31.
Globe-trotting Lambourn-based jockey Tom Garner, who rode a winner in Jersey on Sunday, partners Ben Pauling’s first runner in the States on Thursday.
Oskar Denarius, a winner at Southwell, Worcester and Newton Abbot since joining Pauling earlier this year, lines up in the Grade One $175,000 Grade 1 AP Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase at Saratoga.