Expert Eye can strike to end Stoute drought
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE has labelled EXPERT EYE (Newmarket, 3.00) as the best two-year- old he has worked with in ages and the ante-post favourite for the 2018 Qipco 2,000 Guineas can end a top-level juvenile drought for the Newmarket trainer today.
Stoute has gone 14 seasons since winning a Group One two-year-old contest with Red Bloom — an incredible statistic which should be quashed in this afternoon’s Darley Dewhurst Stakes.
These days, Stoute is seen as a considerate trainer, who is rarely rushed or ruffled when overseeing a promising youngster.
It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the master of Free mason Lodge, who is now sent yearlings that require time and patience to realise potential, rather than ready-made models that need little training or thought.
Expert Eye appears to have bucked that trend, having shown plenty of ability and speed in his homework prior to a stylish Newbury debut. But Stoute has remained true to his beliefs, restricting Expert Eye’s appearances and training him specifically for today’s juvenile feature.
It came as little surprise to Stoute, or racing fans, that the son of Acclamation dismissed the field in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood in July, after all he was a well-backed 7-4 market leader.
However, the manner of the four-length victory was achieved with such serenity that even Stoute was taken aback by his youngster’s quality in demolishing a field which has since produced a series of subsequent winners.
Sadly, Expert Eye will not be much of a price to give his trainer a second win in the race an incredible 31 years after Ajdal made his mark but, if he handles The Dip — and Goodwood’s undulations held no terrors — we could see the coronation of the smartest British two-year-old since Frankel.