The long-awaited meeting between Golden Horn and Gleneagles, the winners of this year’s Derby and 2,000 Guineas respectively, could now take place at Leopardstown next month after John Gosden confirmed on Thursday that he expects the Irish Champion Stakes on 12 September to be Golden Horn’s next race.
The head-to-head between the two Classic winners was expected to be the highlight of the first afternoon of York’s Ebor Festival but Gleneagles was scratched from Wednesday’s International Stakes less than three hours beforehand after Aidan O’Brien, his trainer, decided that the going was too soft for the Guineas winner. Golden Horn lost his unbeaten record in the race, finishing a neck behind the 50-1 winner, Arabian Queen.
“We’ll go to the Irish Champion with him and let’s hope it doesn’t rain too much,” Gosden said on Thursday. “Leopardstown is a lovely track, it drains very well and I’d like to go to the Irish Champion with him, I don’t want to leave a long gap to the Arc because, having missed the King George [at Ascot in late July] – and I’m glad I didn’t run him a mile and a half there on that ground – but, having missed that, the key thing is continuity between his races.”
Gosden has no regrets about Wednesday’s defeat, the first of Golden Horn’s six-race career, which came in a contest that has provided several memorable surprise results down the years.
“The overnight rain wasn’t a help,” Gosden said. “Gleneagles came out and I fully understand why and I’ll be quite honest, if this horse was going to be racing next year, maybe he would have come out. But you can’t get a huge crowd coming like that and not run these horses. It just didn’t go to plan, that’s all, but that’s horseracing. The first one [International Stakes] I watched was Braulio Baeza and Roberto [in1972] ticking off furlongs in 11 and change and killing Brigadier Gerard. It can happen.
“The pacemaker [Dick Doughtywylie] came out and gave him a bump early and set him alight. But the winner is tough, she galloped hard, she loved the ground and made every use of her 5lb [fillies’ allowance].”
BetFred quote Golden Horn as the 2-1 favourite for the Irish Champion Stakes, with Free Eagle, who took the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, next in the list at 5-2 and Gleneagles at 3-1.
Gosden also reported that Jack Hobbs, who finished second behind Golden Horn in the Derby in June before winning the Irish Derby at The Curragh later the same month, could have an unconventional preparation for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in early October.
“Rather than the Prix Niel [on Arc trials day at Longchamp] I might take him to the September Stakes [on 5 September]. I know it’s Kempton [on an all-weather surface] but it’s right-handed, we can get a race back into him there and then go for the Arc.”
Gosden recorded his first success of the meeting when Martlet took the Listed Galtres Stakes at 8-1 but the big winner of the day on the track was Pleascach, who took the Group One Yorkshire Oaks from the favourite, Covert Love.
Both fillies arrived as Classic winners, having won this year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas and Irish Oaks respectively, and both were prominent throughout as Covert Love made the running with Pleascach and Kevin Manning close behind. Covert Love still had a useful lead inside the final quarter mile but Pleascach stayed on strongly to win by a neck with Sea Calisi, who came from towards the rear of the field, another neck away in third.
“Previously we tried to settle her a little bit and it meant breaking her stride, so Kevin decided whatever happened today he wasn’t going to break her stride,” Jim Bolger, the winner’s trainer, said. “Whether it meant making the running or not, Kevin said he was determined he was going to let her roll.
“She may have been feeling the effects of a busy spell on her last two runs, but the fact we were trying to settle her, breaking her stride, was equally important.
“We’ll have to see how she comes out of this, but maybe something at Longchamp like the Prix de l’Opera could be next.”
William Haggas has four winners from 12 races over two days after Besharah quickened clear of a strong field of juvenile fillies in the Group Two Lowther Stakes to follow up Tasleet’s victory in the opener. Lumiere, who was promoted to favouritism for next year’s 1,000 Guineas after an impressive maiden success at Newmarket in July, was second, two-and-a-quarter lengths behind the winner, with Easton Angel, the runner-up in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, back in third.
Besharah is a general 16-1 chance for next year’s 1,000 Guineas with Lumiere now available at 20-1, but Haggas seems unsure about her Classic prospects.
“You hope so [that she will continue to progresss], but usually when they are this precocious, she’s not very big but she’s all there, I would doubt it,” Haggas said. “But we’re not going to give up trying.
“On her first race over six furlongs she was beaten a nose in what used to be the Cherry Hinton at Newmarket, then she won easily at Ascot, but she’s surprised me today and gone another step. She’s beaten those easily. Easton Angel has been a pretty good guide this year and she beat her more easily in this race today than she did in the Cherry Hinton.
“It has to be the [Group One] Cheveley Park next, there’s no reason to go backwards in any way.”