Eye Nowhere As Expert O’Brien Does It Again and Charlton The Punters Hero At HQ
1-2-3-4 Leaves O’Brien Needing One More
Having already landed the 1-2-3 in a major Group 1 contest on more than one occasion, most notably in the 2016 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, it shouldn’t come as the biggest surprise that Saturday’s Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket was utterly dominated by Irish trainer extraordinaire, Aidan O’Brien. Sending out four of the nine runners in what is traditionally one of the most informative juvenile contests of the season, O’Brien certainly had strength in numbers in here.
However, it was still quite some feat that those four runners filled the first four positions at odds of 6/1, 50/1, 9/1 and 20/1. Winner, U S Navy Flag, did get his own way in front here, but still put in a most impressive performance to pull away for a 2 ½l success. Coral reacted by trimming the War Front colt into 6/1 from 16/1 for the 2018 2000 Guineas.
For O’Brien this was a 24th Group 1 win of the season, leaving him needing just one more to equal the all-time record set by US legend, Bobby Frankel. Could O’Brien equal or even break the record at the upcoming Champions Day meeting? We wouldn’t bet against him.
The major disappointment of the race was undoubtedly the odds on favourite Expert Eye. Imperious in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood – a race which has worked out well – the Sir Michael Stoute runner was simply clueless here.
Doing himself no favours by running extremely free right from the off, he predictably ran out of gas in the closing stages. Reportedly also finishing lame, it may prove best to simply ignore this performance, but this son of Acclamation certainly has questions to answer now.
No Holding Back Charlton As Cesarewitch Gamble Is Landed
The second leg of the Autumn Double, also at Newmarket on Saturday, saw a good old-fashioned handicap plot landed in fine style as Roger Charlton’s, Withhold, ran away with the Cesarewitch Handicap. Only joining Charlton in May of this year following a gelding operation, this four year old had already demonstrated his staying credentials when scoring over 1m5f and 2m when with Charlie Hills.
Having only run the once for his new trainer, over a totally inadequate 1m4f, and getting in here off a mark of 87, this one had the look of one who had been laid out for this. Charlton admitted as much in the preliminaries and a gamble which had already been gathering pace saw the son of Champs Elysees smashed in further, eventually going off as the 5/1 favourite.
In the race itself backers never really had too much cause for concern as jockey Silvestre De Sousa – landing a third success in this race in five years – bounced him out into a prominent early position. A position he maintained until the home straight where he powered right away from gallant runner up London Prize. Won by a number of massive outsiders in recent times, the 2017 edition of this was most definitely one for the punters.
