Cracksman primed after soft forecast
Cracksman earned a higher turf rating than his Prix de l’arc de Triomphe-winning stable companion Enable when he ran away with the Qipco Champion Stakes last year and will have ground in his favour when he defends his title at Ascot on Saturday.
Chris Stickels, Ascot’s clerk of the course, described the going as a mix of soft and heavy after more rain than forecast fell over the weekend and is now predicting soft ground for Champions Day.
That will be music to the ears of Cracksman’s owner-breeder, Anthony Oppenheimer, who has been twiddling his thumbs since his star colt was beaten in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on fast ground at Royal Ascot in June (although trainer John Gosden was inclined to blame Cracksman’s interest in the opposite sex that day).
The colt has since been all dressed up with nowhere to go as Britain endured the driest summer since 1976 and, though readied for them, he had to sit out the King George (July), International (August) and Arc (October) because of unsuitable ground.
“I don’t think he’s descended so much as hit rather a plateau,” said the trainer. “He’s in top order. It’s hard to criticise a horse who has won two Group Ones [Ganay and Coronation Cup] and been second at Royal Ascot in a good time, but he wasn’t quite with us mentally that day.”
If Cracksman has become the season’s forgotten horse, punters certainly remembered him yesterday as he went even-money for Saturday’s contest, despite the presence of his in-form stable companion Roaring Lion and Crystal Ocean in the field. However, Roaring Lion also has the less testing option of the Queen Elizabeth II over the mile.
Karl Burke has supplemented John Dance’s brilliant filly Laurens, now the winner of five Group Ones, for the QEII, where she will be reunited with jockey PJ Mcdonald, who has missed her last two starts because of injury.
The owner was not fussed about the ground. “We always thought she wanted a bit of cut as she changes her legs a lot,” he said. “It was pretty soft in places when she won the Sun Chariot.”