Ten Sovereigns starts cashing in
The now-retired Blue Point has a good lead in this year’s Sprint category but Ten Sovereigns gave notice he will be a potent force in this sphere with a dominant victory in the July Cup at Newmarket last Saturday.
Ten Sovereigns’ season has been slow to kick-in but, finally, the same sort of horse we saw last season turned up at Newmarket. He and Advertise, the first two home in the July Cup, plus Battaash will have to win at least another Group One to start challenging Blue Point – certainly as far as points are concerned – but that seems a distinct possibility for Ballydoyle’s Ten Sovereigns.
It would not stretch the imagination to see last year’s Cartier Twoyear-old Colt, Too Darn Hot, mixing it with the best over six furlongs after recording his first win of the season in the Prix Jean Prat over seven furlongs at Deauville. But with Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes his next target, the Lloyd-webber-owned colt’s best chance of more glory is in the Three-year-old Colt category in which, by virtue of some high profile near-misses, he now shares the lead with the Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck.
Hot on their heels is another Ballydoyle colt, Japan. Third in the Derby he has since won the King Edward VII Stakes and, on Sunday evening, the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp. His target, it seems, is Enable in the Prix de L’arc de Triomphe in October.
Blue Point is not the only high profile retiree to join the Darley stallion roster recently. Yesterday it was announced that last year’s Derby winner Masar had also run his last race. Last season Masar won the Craven Stakes by an astounding nine lengths before finishing third in the Guineas and then giving Godolphin their first winner in the world’s greatest race. However, he missed the rest of the season through injury and, in two starts this term, had not looked the same horse. No one, though, can take last year’s Derby away from him.