Sandown Saturday

Coral-Eclipse Stakes (Group 1)

HIGHLIGHT of the weekend was the Coral-Eclipse Stakes which featured multiple Group 1 winners, although the market leader Bay Bridge was the one horse without a win at the top level.

The pace had been discussed beforehand, with no obvious pacemaker and it was expected that Alenquer would get an easy lead if Tom Marquand elected to go forward, which he did, while Mishriff missed a beat at the start and trailed early.

Initially setting a modest gallop, pursued by Ryan Moore on Bay Bridge, Marquand cranked up the pace before the home turn, looking to blunt the finishing speed of his rivals, and the field turned for home with the taps fully turned.

In the end, both Alenquer and Bay Bridge paid for going too hard too soon, but the tactics certainly made for a great race to watch, and there was a point with just under a furlong and a half to go when all six runners were separated by less than a length.

With a furlong left, Alenquer cracked, and Mishriff ran out of room as he tried to challenge between Bay Bridge and Native Trail, but at the same time Christophe Soumillon was pulling Vadeni (Jean-Claude Rouget) out of the latter’s slipstream and he launched the sort of challenge more typical of the final day of the Tour de France, as he set his mount down for the sprint while crouching low on his back.

That challenge quickly took him to the front, and although he allowed both the unlucky Mishriff (John & Thady Gosden/David Egan) and Native Trail (Charlie Appleby/Will Buick) another bite at the cherry, he held on by a neck and a head from that pair to give France its first win in the Eclipse since Javelot won for Percy Carter in 1960.

Clockwork

While everything in the race ran like clockwork for Soumillon, he allowed 11/4 winner Vadeni to drift right as he celebrated victory, causing serious interference to both Native Trail and Lord North. The Belgian rider was handed a 12-day ban for careless riding, which he is appealing.

For what it’s worth, I feel the ban was absolutely justified, and while many enjoy the colour of Soumi’s finger-wagging celebrations, too many riders who choose to celebrate by taking one hand off the reins do so at the cost of losing control of their mounts, and incidents like this, where two hugely valuable thoroughbreds only just avoided serious injury, needs to be avoided. A stern word as to future conduct won’t cut the mustard.

Rouget will now aim Vadeni at the Irish Champion Stakes, sparking comparisons with Almanzor, who won that contest in 2016.

“I have 43 years of training in my legs, so I know it is always difficult to win a maiden and to win the Eclipse was a real challenge” he said after the race.

“Winning the Irish Champion with Almanzor we were the same. They are two champions, but they are a bit different. The change of foot of this one is terribly good and that we saw in the Prix du Jockey Club.”