Auxerre can fulfil the hype
Appleby’s gelding set to continue his progress in Lincoln
Auxerre can fulfil his considerable hype and potential in this afternoon’s Unibet Lincoln at Doncaster.
The first leg of the spring double is the highlight of day one of the new Flat turf season.
Most renewals bring with them a buzz horse and, although some long-priced horses often win this ultracompetitive handicap, too, it is not unusual for the big money to prove well-placed.
There has certainly been plenty of money around for Auxerre, who has a highlyprogressive and persuasive profile to go with Godolphin’s enticing blue silks. Charlie Appleby’s gelding was a onelength second on racecourse debut in a Newmarket novice to a subsequently 100-rated four-time winner last June.
Sticking to a mile, Auxerre has not been beaten in three runs since, twice at odds-on against his contemporaries and most recently in handicap company on Kempton’s Polytrack in October.
None of those assignments compares with what awaits here. But seamless progress at a level well within his compass ensures the fouryear-old arrives for by far his biggest test to date burdened only with lofty expectations about which he will know nothing.
Appleby resisted the temptation to take Auxerre further afield for a winter campaign in Dubai and is set to be rewarded with a suitably sound surface at Doncaster for a horse he hopes will be up to Group class in time.
Majorjumbomaybethefirst winner of the turf season as the Listed Unibet Cammidge Trophy Stakes opens the card on Town Moor.
Kevin Ryan’s five-year-old wasconsistentthroughoutlast season and, while the grey had arareoffdaywhenhegotstuck inthemudintheayrgoldcup, he concluded his busy campaign with a convincing win in a good York handicap over this distance.
Major Jumbo got the extra furlong well that day, in soft ground, book-ending his season with victories after striking first time out over the minimum trip at Newmarket in April.
He is back up to this class for the second time and will need to find further improvement against some talented sprinters, but will not mind the drying surface and has plenty to recommend him.
In the Doncaster Mile, another Listed event, the absence of last year’s Lincoln victor Addeybb–ruledoutbecauseof the anticipated lively ground – surely leaves the way clear for Sharja Bridge.
Roger Varian’s five-year-old entire was no match for the mighty Wissahickon in the Cambridgeshire on his penultimate start of 2018.
But he stayed on most bravely and dourly over Ascot’s straight mile to end his campaign with victory in the Balmoral Handicap.
That improved performance puts him bang in the reckoning for this similar challenge and with good-ground form in the book too, Sharja Bridge has obvious prospects of justifying likely favouritism.