Sandown – Page 2 – Pattern Racing.Com

*Native Trail enters the ring at the Curragh*

Beaten by stablemate Corebus at Newmarket Native Trail and William Buick went to the Curragh, the scene of his best victory as a juvenile when winning the National Stakes, as an odds-on favourite for the Irish 2000 Guineas and duly obliged. He will step up to ten furlongs for the first time taking on the older generation in receipt of a 10 lb weight for age allowance.

Vadeni the other three-year-old in the field also has the benefit of the allowance. He is already proven over the distance having taken the Prix du Jockey Club over the trip at Chantilly in some fashion. Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, the mount of Christophe Smouillion, the Aga Khan owned colt is a very exciting prospect and currently is second favourite for the Arc this year behind Derby winner Desert Crown.

The older horses, Bay Bridge, Alenquer, Mishriff and Lord North are collectively a very decent bunch.

Sir Micheal Stoute’s Bay Bridge has yet to crack the Group 1 nut, he did run a very good race behind State Of Rest at Royal Ascot in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over the trip where an uneven pace and quick ground were possibly his undoing. Prior to that he’d put in a masterful performance in the Brigadier Gerard beating Mastahdaf by 5L. With no Ballydoyle runner in the race Ryan Moore is free to once again take the mount.

Willie Haggas’s Alenquer has cracked the G1 nut. He won the Tattersalls Gold Cup under Tom Marquand, once again in the plate, at the Curragh from High Definition, State Of Rest and Lord North (whom he also beat in the Winter Derby at Lingfield) with Broome a distant fifth, 6½.L behind It should be noted Broome then won the Hardwick Stakes 3¼L from Mastahdaf.

Lord North reopposses for John and Thady Gosden albeit without Frankie Dettori. Instead he’ll be partnered by James Doyle. He has yet to rediscover the form that saw him win three Group 1’s, a brace of Dubai Turf’s, this year where he dead heated with Panthalassa and last year, when arguably at his best, he beat Vin De Garde 3L, both Japenese opposition. He also won the 2020 running of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes with the Doyler on top.

*Alenquer winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh*

John and Thady Gosden also send Mishriff back into battle. The 5yo had a terrible time under David Egan, retained rider for owner Prince Faisal, in Riyadh this year in the Saudi Cup, a race he’d won the year before. The track rode more like American Dirt and he swallowed a lot of it trailing in an eased down last. Better to remember his International Stakes win at York last year where he’d Alenquer 6L adrift in second however the Gosden’s have indicated he’ll need the run.

It’s a top-class meeting of the generations. The young pretenders are classic winners and the older horses all bar Bay Bridge are Group 1 winners. Of the three-year-olds, Vadeni was ultra-impressive in Paris and deserves favouritism, Native Trail less so at the Curragh, more workmanlike. Of the older horses, the best current form is Alenquer’s (on a line through Mastahdaf via Broome). Vadeni may just have flattered to deceive therefore the progressive Alenquer is the one to be on.

Recommendation

Alenquer 15/2 win