COMING as it does immediately after the King George at Ascot and just before the start of Glorious Goodwood, the Pat Eddery Stakes could easily disappear into the racing netherworld, and it wasn’t even televised on ITV this year, which looks something of an oversight in retrospect.
The race, a seven-furlong listed contest formerly run as the Winkfield Stakes, is certainly holding its own despite its obscure slot. Although the 2022 running was weak, the previous year’s race provided us with future Group 1 winners in Angel Bleu (Jean-Luc Lagardere, Criterium International) and Cachet (1000 Guineas), and 2020 threw up the admirable Chindit as well as subsequent Platinum Jubilee winner Naval Crown. The race has even featured a Gold Cup winner, with Subjectivist trailing home when favourite in 2019.
This year’s running might just propel the Pat Eddery towards pattern status, with winner Rosallion and runner-up Al Musmak both doing their bit for the form at the weekend.
Rosallion was an impressive winner of the Ascot contest, coming from off the pace to beat Al Musmak by four lengths in a smart time, and while he disappointed when odds-on for the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, he fully vindicated previous impressions when slamming nine rivals in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp on Sunday.
Al Musmak had also boosted the form when winning the Ascendant Stakes at Haydock, and he improved further when splitting Ghostwriter and Capulet in the Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.
That’s not all for the Pat Eddery by any means. Fourth-placed Alyanaabi won the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket on Thursday, while Dancing Gemini (beaten 14 and three-quarter lengths at Ascot) was an impressive winner of the Flying Scotsman Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger fixture, where Sunway was also runner-up in the Champagne Stakes having been sixth at the Berkshire venue.
Of those mentioned, Rosallion is clearly the star, and his Longchamp win will rightly have Richard Hannon dreaming of another 2000 Guineas success, while Al Musmak is a strong, scopey colt who will also improve further, but Dancing Gemini might still fly under the radar.
By Camelot out of an Australia mare, he is bred to progress with time and distance, and Roger Teal admitted he was “bum high” when running at Ascot and growing all the time. He won the Flying Scotsman in a fast time for the conditions and is not only an intriguing contender for the Futurity back at Doncaster, but an exciting middle-distance prospect for 2023.
It’s also worth making a note of the beaten favourite for the Pat Eddery; Ancient Wisdom has not run since finishing third at 7/4 at Ascot and became another loser in the much-overplayed disappointing summer for Charlie Appleby, but his effort looks better in retrospect, and the son of Dubawi impressed when winning at Haydock on debut despite galloping up in the air.
James Doyle spoke in glowing terms of him after that, suggesting that he was anything but precocious, and he’s the type to benefit from a break to help him mature.
A €2,000,000 purchase, Ancient Wisdom’s grand-dam is a half-sister to Goldikova, and while he has no entries, he’s worth keeping in the tracker.
Of course, when horses go missing in the middle of their juvenile season, there is often a negative reason for it, and I’d prefer to see Ancient Wisdom sooner rather than later with that in mind, but he should not be allowed to slip from the collective consciousness because of that defeat and subsequent absence.
Küblers continue to impress
THE victory of Astro King in last week’s Cambridgeshire was a huge result for the training partnership of Daniel and Claire Kübler, and a further indication that the couple are superb practitioners of their art, particularly with handicappers acquired from other yards.
That has been demonstrated before, but in improving the seemingly exposed Astro King, who had been a classy, but largely disappointing handicap project for Sir Michael Stoute, the Küblers have caught the attention of a wider section of the sports followers.
It’s a well-worn cliché that nobody does better with older horses than Sir Michael, and Astro King managed to make the frame in consecutive runnings of the Royal Hunt Cup for the Master of Freemason Lodge, but he failed to win a big pot and was sold for 36,000 guineas at the end of the 2022 campaign.
To take a horse with such a profile and improve him by a stone is a remarkable achievement and landing two heritage handicaps in the same campaign the coup de grâce.
This is far from a one-off, as followers of the Sarsen Farm stable can attest, and of 31 horses switching to the Küblers for the first time, five have won, at SP’s of 13/2, 15/2, 14/1, and 16/1 (twice). Punters latching on to the system would be £340 ahead to a tenner at SP.
Improved
It’s also notable that the success isn’t just one-off wins with such horses, and the likes of Andaleep, Zulu Girl and Percy’s Lad have all improved by double-figure margins on official ratings while winning multiple races, with Andaleep the epitome of what Daniel and Claire Kübler can achieve.
Rated 65 when arriving at the yard and having already had 33 handicap starts for four different trainers, the apparently regressive Andaleep not only got back to his best but improved his rating to a new high of 94 in winning six times to date for his current handlers.
Any idea that this level of success is in any way related to chance or good fortune is misplaced, and I’ve no doubt that Daniel and Claire will continue to enhance their blossoming reputation in the years to come.
PAUL Robson is very much a trainer to keep an eye on having racked up three winners from as many runners during the week.
A very promising amateur and conditional rider in his younger days when based with Nicky Richards at Greystoke, Robson was forced to retire due to a recurring shoulder injury at just 22, and he retrained as a joiner and funeral director in order to bolster his family business in Hawick.
Now in charge of Robsons Funeral Directors, Paul has also taken over from father Adam when it comes to training horses, taking out a jumps licence in autumn 2021. While Adam managed just one winner under rules from 85 runners over three decades, Paul has quickly enjoyed greater success due to a purpose-built yard in nearby Spittal-On-Rule, in the Scottish Borders where he has installed a seven-furlong uphill gallop he calls his secret weapon.
Results
The results speak for themselves. Despite the horses being cheaply acquired and usually family owned, Paul has already sent out 11 winners from 70 runners in under two years, and 15 runners this season have yielded four winners, with only four of those runners failing to get in the money.
A double at Southwell with Magic Mike and Haveyougotmymoney was followed by a first bumper success courtesy of Cannock Park at Bangor on Thursday, and Robson will soon have a flat licence, having prepared his father’s Ben Asker before that gelding won twice on the level for Katie Scott this summer.
Robson clearly knows how to source talent without breaking the bank and has the dedication to make a success of his new venture, so just needs the owners if he’s to make a big splash on the UK training scene.
Keep him on side.