ALMERAQ is still ante-post favourite for the Ayr Gold Cup in a fortnight but William Haggas’ 3 year-old looks all set to step up to the top level at 3.35 on Saturday.
Haggas won Haydock’s Group 1 Sprint Cup 12 months ago with the 6 year-old Montassib but the trainer’s 3 years younger son of Dark Angel looked a monster when he hacked up off 90 last time and his new mark of 105 would see him carry 9-5 in Ayr’s £180,000 handicap.
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That latest success came in July’s Ayr Gold Cup Trial won by subsequent Silver Cup winner Alfa Kellenic last year but everything about that win screamed “Group horse in a handicap” and only the unlikely event of fast ground will see the Haggas’ horse divert to a Listed race at York on Sunday (4.30).
The top sprinters have been winning the big speed tests in their turn this year and the absence of no outstanding star in the division has clearly influenced Haggas and owners Shadwell to pitch Almeraq into the top division with the weight-for-age from the older horses now dwindled down to 2lbs.
Almeraq absolutely blew me away with that midsummer win in Ayrshire and I doubt last night’s top-price of 10/1 will survive much past this morning‘s declarations providing the Haydock ground is to Haggas’ satisfaction.
PADDY THE SQUIRE was flagged up for Saturday’s Old Borough Cup at Haydock (3.0) in Sunday’s Diary column and the opening 10/1 had only shrunk to 8/1 last night ahead of today’s final confirmations.
Iain Jardine’s stable star is up another 5lbs after defying a 9lbs rise to win Hamilton’s Lanark Silver Bell but he steps up another quarter of a mile in trip here and I reckon that’s the key to further improvement.
NORTHERN EXPRESS can win Saturday’s 2.40 at Ascot and KALPANA can warm up for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomohe by winning Kempton’s Sirenia Stakes at 1.35.
Weekend winners ETERNAL SUNSHINE (11/2), NAKAMURA (4/1) and ICE SOVEREIGNS (3/1) were all pinpointed on this page last Thursday and there are excellent Friday cards at Ascot and Haydock ahead of those tracks’ more valuable meetings on Saturday.
SHALADAR was mugged on the line after looking all over the winner of last year’s lady amateur jockeys’ race at Ascot (1.45) and I’m backing Kevin Ryan’s now 6 year-old to make amends tomorrow.
Becky Smith was going so well 12 months ago that she hit the front way too soon but she’s a whopping 16lbs better off with the winner Terries Royale for an agonising neck defeat and the horse looks to have been laid out for this revenge mission.
Smith has proved her worth in the saddle time and again since that high-profile mishap and the Ryan raider can make amends at the main expense of in-form Gemma Tutty’s Look Back Smiling under Amy Collier.
Ryan’s highly-tried HI ROYAL has hit a career-low mark of 100 ahead of tomorrow’s mile handicap at 4.40 and the 5 year-old can give the trainer an Ascot double, with bang in-form Scots pilot Rowan Scott doing the steering after 5 wins from his latest 13 rides before last night’s card at Hamilton.
Fellow-Scot Danny Tudhope’s mount Theoryofeverything is way better than he’s shown the last twice and Ryan also runs Sysyphean under Sam James but Hi Royal has looked on the way back at Sandown and Thirsk the last twice and has plenty of experience of Ascot’s straight mile.
Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore won’t mind any rain at Haydock for TWO AULD PALS at 1.32 but a galloping 14 furlongs on good ground will be fine and Ethan Tindall’s 3lbs takes my selection to 2lbs below his last winning mark.
TAYGAR could be just about to peak in time to win the 2.42 and Jason Hart looks a good booking for ECCLESIASTICAL at 3.15 after the rider’s 3 wins on the horse for Tristan Davidson before the gelding’s switch to Lisa Williamson.
Delahunt daily
Obito to win 5.12 Haydock
Danny Tudhope’s mount looked to appreciate the 10 furlongs at Ayr last time and the 3 year-old can follow up against better opposition to defy a 5lbs rise.
Obito’s previous form to be 4th over a mile at York was franked by the winner going in again off 6lbs higher on Tuesday and David O’Meara’s son of Blue Point has looked a steady improver since winning over a mile at Hamilton in June.
Hat-trick seeking King Of The Sea should make this a keen betting heat but Obito’s Ayr win has also been boosted by wins for the third and sixth and Tudhope thinks the horse has a big future.
Laytown stages its once a year meeting on the beach tonight an JUNGLE COVE can pay for the ice creams by repeating last year’s 7.10 win before the tide comes in.
Jody Townend’s mount tackles the 7 furlongs handicap after little more than a canter round in Saturday’s Pat Smullen charity race at the Curragh.
York’s Sky Bet Series card is the Sunday highlight away from the French Arc trials at Longchamp and EARTHWATCH could be the one for the closing apprentice handicap at 5.30.
The Haggas runner is an early booking for Warren Fentiman and this looks a good race to try and defy an 11lbs rise for winning at Sandown.
Talking Horses with Mr. Ed
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By ED WATSON
JIM GOLDIE has vowed American Affair will be back better than ever next year – and ready to stick two fingers to the neigh-sayers.
Goldie’s Group 1 hero has been ruled out of next month’s Champions Sprint at Ascot while he recovers from injury and he won’t run again until March at the earliest.
A string of shock results in this summer’s big sprints has prompted many pundits to slam a lack of quality in the division.
American Affair completed his remarkable rise from 67-rated handicapper to top-level winner in the King Charles III at Royal Ascot in June.
Jm Jungle – a horse American Affair beat in handicaps at Musselburgh and York earlier in the year – scooped Goodwood’s King George, while the July Cup went to 66-1 rank outsider No Half Measures.
Slow progress in his recovery from a leg injury has so far prevented American Affair from proving his breakthrough Group 1 success was no flash in the pan.
Asked what he made of the criticism of this season’s sprinters, Goldie said: “I don’t really care!
“We’ve won a Group 1 and that’s something they’ll never be able to take away from us.
“I don’t buy into the criticism. The Aussie horse Asfoora, who won the King Charles III last year and the Nunthorpe last month, finished behind American Affair at Ascot. So the form’s not that bad!”
Dates with destiny in the Nunthorpe and Breeders’ Cup had to be binned when vets detected an issue with bone bruising in one of American Affair’s hind legs.
With no sign of improvement, Goldie revealed a period of rest and TLC is now required to ensure his star five-year-old makes a full recovery.
The Renfrewshire ace added: “We need to be careful with him for obvious reasons.
“We did another MRI and in the last eight weeks the injury has got slightly worse, not better.
“The bruising should work its way out as the bone remodels, but it’s going to need six months now rather than two.
“Nature should cure it but we need to give him time. If you rush these things, you could end up with a stress fracture.
“We won’t take any risks. We’re aiming to get him back better than ever.”
Goldie has already started mapping out a 2026 campaign that could see American Affair return to action at Doncaster’s Flat season opener in March.
He said: “We learned a lot about how to train a top sprinter from Jack Dexter.
“So we might end up following the Jack Dexter route and going for the Cammidge Trophy at Doncaster.
“He’d have to carry a Grade 1 penalty in that and in the Duke Of York if we go there.
“After that it pretty much plans itself – Royal Ascot again, the Nunthorpe, then maybe the Breeders’ Cup.
“Is American Affair the horse to prove British sprinters aren’t as bad as some folk are saying? No. He’s 100 per cent Scottish blood!”
Scots Corner
IAIN JARDINE isn’t the only one hoping Paddy The Squire is the horse to take him back to the biggest stages. His jockey Andrew Mullen is too.
It’s a quirk of the Tranent star’s career that his highest-profile wins from nearly 25 years in the saddle came in Canada and in Qatar.
Victory in Saturday’s Old Borough Cup at Haydock won’t top his 2016 glory in Redcar’s Two-Year-Old Trophy. Or in Doncaster’s valuable sales race in 2018.
But it would fuel Mullen’s dreams that last month’s Lanark Silver Bell winner, who’s won three of his five starts this season since being gelded, could yet endorse his CV with a career-defining triumph in 2026.
Mullen, 41, said: “It’s not easy trying to find a good horse.
“Paddy always stuck out to me like he could be one, but as a colt he wouldn’t give you everything. Now he’s been gelded, he does. He feels like he’s still getting better.”
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