Boodles Chester Vase (Group 3)

ARREST (John & Thady Gosden/Frankie Dettori) had his jockey dreaming of further classic success in his farewell season as he ran out an authoritative winner of the Group 3 Chester Vase over a mile and a half at Chester on Wednesday.

Arrest was sent off a shade of odds-on at 10/11 in the Derby trial and produced a convincing display on the soft ground to beat market rival Adelaide River (Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore) by six and a half lengths, with Dettori taking a wider than usual route off the home turn as Moore stuck to the inner in vain pursuit.

In truth, that looked to make little difference to either the result or the margin, and while underfoot conditions may well have played their part, Arrest looks a serious Derby candidate on this showing.

The son of Frankel had finished his juvenile campaign by finishing second to Dubai Mile in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in October and was rerouted to the Roodee after Sandown’s Classic Trial fell victim to the weather.

The Juddmonte-owned colt travelled keenly in the early stages, with Dettori keen to track leader Hadrianus, and taking the occasional look behind to check where his market rival was.

It was clear before the home turn that Hadrianus wouldn’t be able to take him much further, so Dettori eased his mount to the front three furlongs out and Arrest gobbled up the ground when sent about his work.

Dettori was at pains to find less poached ground when in the clear, but Adelaide River was never going well enough to follow a similar route, and the winner was in a league of his own on the day, with the front two pulling 10 lengths and more clear of the others.

Arrest was trimmed in the betting for the Derby after this romp, and is now around a 4/1 shot for Epsom, where he bids to become Dettori’s third Derby winner after Authorized and Golden Horn, although any bid could prove ground dependent.

“I think he enjoyed the ground and if Epsom was fast, I don’t think he’d enjoy that sort of surface,” opined Gosden senior after the race.

“That’s what the jockey felt, but there’s no reason why he won’t be in the Derby at this stage. We put him in the Arc on Tuesday. He’s got the scope to train on at three, and four and five.”

Aidan O’Brien plans to drop runner-up Adelaide River back in trip to a mile and a quarter, with the colt failing to improve for this attempt at further.

SENT off a hot favourite at 8/11, Aidan O’Brien’s Savethelastdance was a most emphatic winner of the Listed Cheshire Oaks over an extended 11 furlongs.

The daughter of Galileo was the first off the bridle after Pam Sly’s Wintercrack had set the early pace, but she was merely showing signs of residual greenness. While Moore had to humour her in the early stages, she soon found her rhythm, and as others began to struggle on the surface, she made a sweeping move off the home turn, and was soon clearing right away. Her winning margin of 22 lengths over There’s The Door (Dave Evans/Rossa Ryan) was no fluke as the race went, and she naturally catapulted herself right to the head of the Oaks market, with 13/8 the best price now on offer for Epsom.

It’s clear that Savethelastdance relished conditions on the Roodee, but she looked an improved performer when making all to land a mile and a quarter Leopardstown maiden on her return and is clearly progressing at a rate of knots.

In terms of the need for soft ground, it’s worth remembering that her dam Daddys Lil Darling was a multiple winner on firm turf in the US, whose victories included the Grade 1 American Oaks on the parched turf of Santa Anita.

She is best remembered on this side of the pond as the filly who bolted to post prior to Enable’s Oaks under Olivier Peslier, causing the Frenchman to take drastic action.

This was a record eighth win in the race for Aidan O’Brien, and a sixth win for Ryan Moore. Interviewed afterwards, the latter said: “I was very impressed; you can only be impressed by what she’s done there.

“They kind of all gave up with half a mile to go and she was just getting going, but she gave me a very good feel – she’s probably given me as good a feel in this race as any of the ones I’ve ridden.

“She stepped a little slow, but they went very hard early on, and she just relaxed and followed them round. I thought I’d just make sure she knew what she had to do, and she stretched all the way to the line and ran right through the line.”