Wednesday 30th September 2009
Sea The Stars has Champions' Day option
SEA The Stars is among the 33 horses remaining in the £350,000 Group 1 Emirates Airline Champion Stakes (3.05pm) following the scratching stage, revealed today, Wednesday, 30th September.
The 10-furlong Emirates Airline Champion Stakes is the highlight of Champions’ Day at Newmarket on Saturday, 17th October, and scratchings for two of the day’s other prestigious races, the £300,000 Group 1 Jumeirah Dewhurst Stakes (2.25pm) and the £160,000 totesport.com Cesarewitch (3.40pm) are also revealed.
As well as this year’s exceptional Derby winner, the Emirates Airlines Champion Stakes could feature the last two Oaks heroines Look Here and Sariska, as well as stanjames.co.uk 1000 Guineas winner Ghanaati and Rainbow View, the beaten favourite at Newmarket in May who has gone on to win the Group 1 Matron Stakes plus another George Strawbridge-owned filly, Fantasia.
French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre won the prize in 2006 with Pride and could saddle Alpine Rose and Beheshtam, while Ireland’s champion trainer Aidan O’Brien may run Irish Derby winner Fame And Glory and his Irish 2,000 Guineas-winning stablemate Mastercraftsman.
Yorkshire Oaks winner Dar Re Mi could also line up alongside the Khalid Abdulla-owned trio of Twice Over, Doctor Fremantle and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes runner-up Zacinto.
The seven-furlong Jumeirah Dewhurst Stakes has 50 two-year-olds going forward. A 14-strong Ballydoyle entry features Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner Alfred Nobel, alongside Group 2 victors Cape Blanco and St Nicholas Abbey.
The Kevin Prendergast-trained Kingsfort saw off Chabal to win the Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh. The latter is trained by Jim Bolger who has trained the last three Dewhurst Stakes winners (2006 Teofilo, 2007 New Approach, 2008 Intense Focus).
Unbeaten Group One Darley Prix Morny victor Arcano, winner of the TNT July Stakes at Newmarket, heads the home defence alongside Godolphin’s Group 2 Champagne Stakes victor Poet’s Voice.
Group 2 winners Dick Turpin, Awzaan and Silver Grecian, victorious in the Meydan Superlative Stakes at Newmarket in July, and Group 3 Round Tower Stakes winner Arctic, are also among those remaining, along with a bevy of highly-regarded but as yet untested colts from top stables.
The second scratching stage for the totesport.com Cesarewitch sees 67 going forward for the two and a quarter-mile heritage handicap, including the David Simcock-trained Darley Sun, the current 5/1 favourite with the sponsor. With a maximum permitted field size of 34, Darley Sun needs only seven horses above him in the handicap to come out to be guaranteed a run.
Other fancied contenders still on track for the contest are Swingkeel, Electrolyser and Wells Lyrical, while Nanton, also engaged in the totesport.com Cambridgeshire, could yet bid for Autumn Double.
