Unbeaten colts primed for showdown
Mums Tipple fancied to land Middle Park Benbatl back and on for the Queen Elizabeth II
It is traditionally the Dewhurst, in a fortnight’s time, which is the sexier of Newmarket’s brace of autumn Group Ones for two-year-old colts, but this season it may well be trumped by today’s Juddmonte Middle Park, a race that pits three unbeaten colts together.
The trio are Earthlight, the Morny winner and the best in France, Siskin, the Phoenix winner and best in Ireland, and Mums Tipple, who may not have had any Group glory but was the 11-length winner of a York sales race.
The supporting cast is not too bad either; Monarch of Egypt has twice chased Siskin home, while Threat, ostensibly Richard Hannon’s second string here, won the Group Two Champagne Stakes over seven furlongs last time.
The presence of Godolphin’s Pinatubo, the second-highest rated two-year-old ever, in the Dewhurst may have a negative effect on that race as an actual contest but a positive side-effect is Earthlight’s participation today, although, reading between the lines, Andre Fabre might have liked to try his Godolphin colt over seven in a fortnight.
Fabre has no worries about him eventually getting a mile, not always the case of Middle Park winners, who usually go down the sprint route. But, he is clearly fast and, after a few quiet years, can be regarded as the French resistance.
A win for the Ger Lyons-trained Siskin would be a change from Ballydoyle. But the romantic result would be a victory for the frontrunning Mums Tipple, a colt bought for £41,000 by Martin Hughes for his mother and motherin-law, Marian Lyons and Patricia Zanelli, who are living the dream.
Mark Johnston is closing in on the record number of winners in a season – 235 set by Hannon and Richard Fahey – but he would dearly love that number to include a Group One. He saddles Raffle Prize in the Cheveley Park but Tropbeau comes from France with a good reputation having readily won a Group Two at Deauville.
Hughie Morrison has a good chance of a second Bet365 Cambridgeshire 10 years after his first with Le Don De Vie.
Yesterday, Benbatl, runner-up to Winx in the Cox Plate nearly 12 months ago, made a winning reappearance in the Joel Stakes, beating King of Comedy five lengths. He could head to the Queen Elizabeth II at Ascot next.