Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CRACKS STARTING TO SHOW
A MAKE-OR-BREAK dawn workout next Wednesday will decide Cracksman’s 2017 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe plans.
Trainer John Gosden and owner Anthony Oppenheimer have been reluctant to commit the Frankel colt to contesting Europe’s middle-distance championship, for which he is available at 10-1, at Chantilly next Sunday.
But a clash with stablemate, and odds-on favourite, Enable is on the cards if Cracksman, who followed placed efforts in the Epsom and Curragh Derbys with wide-margin wins in York’s Great Voltigeur Stakes and the Prix Niel at Longchamp, impresses in his midweek manoeuvres.
“He will work this Wednesday — he has got to do a searching gallop — and I think I will get a call from Mr Gosden then,” Oppenheimer said.
“Our intention was not to run him, because we wanted him for next year and we didn’t want to give him a hard race.
“The horse has got to tell us how he is — he’s made huge progress. If he’s bouncing out of his skin, he looks wonderful and he’s going like a bomb, then we may decide to run him.”
If Cracksman receives his connections’ blessing to run, Gosden and Oppenheimer must seek a jockey to replace Frankie Dettori, set to partner Enable. “We need someone we can trust,” he added. “We don’t want to be hit sideways to get fifth place.”