Turf Talk: Doncaster Racecourse hosts final Group One race of Flat season
Champions Day at Ascot last Saturday threw up some surprises, with David O'Meara training an 80/1 winner and Baaeed losing a race for the first time in his career.
He now goes off to stud duties having lost his perfect record. It will be interesting to see if his progeny are as successful as those bred by Frankel, the horse he is most compared to.
The final Group One race of the Flat season is held at Doncaster on Saturday. Aidan O'Brien has won the Futurity Trophy ten times and had eight of the seventeen entries at the five-day declaration stage. Auguste Rodin looks the pick of his entries based on his win on soft going at Leopardstown.
O'Brien also saddles the short priced Aesop's Fables in the Listed Doncaster Stakes, but I am taking him on with Shaquille from the small Malton yard of Julie Camacho.
Her stable is in cracking form and Shaquille won in testing conditions at York's last meeting. He showed great battling qualities that day and should run well at a double figure price.
My best bet of the weekend is Hamish who contests the Group 3 St Simon Stakes at Newbury. William Haggis wisely missed a clash with Trueshan at Ascot last week to wait for this race. He is another who loves the mud and his only defeat this year was behind the mighty Kyprios.
The Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury looks open and I am hoping another horse from a small Yorkshire yard can run well. Oviedo, trained by Ed Bethell, ran third to Chaldean in the Acomb Stakes at York. That horse has since gone on to win the Dewhurst and is favourite for the 2,000 Guineas next year.
He would be a much shorter price if trained in a big Newmarket yard and may have been overlooked in the betting.
Garlick’s Goodies: Saturday Newbury 1.50 - Oviedo; 2.25 - Hamish; Doncaster 3.00 - Shaquille; 3.35 – Auguste Rodin.