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29 Mar 2017

Series spotlight: Middle Distance

Almanzor 2017 Middle Distance

The Middle Distance category of the QIPCO British Champions Series is already brimming with quality – regardless of the three-year-olds who emerge on scene.

Almanzor, Minding, Jack Hobbs, Postponed and Highland Reel – to name just five – will be waiting for the the classic generation.

The appearances of Almanzor this term will, in particular, be keenly anticipated after the way he excelled in the second half of last season.

His victory in the French Derby marked him down as a top-notch performer but it was his performances in the autumn that really made most racing fans sit up and take notice.

He pounced from off the pace when beating a star-studded field in the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September and then signed off for the year with a stunning debut in the Champions Series – quickening away from Found and Jack Hobbs in the QIPCO Champion Stakes.

The Jean Claude Rouget-trained colt is the highest-rated horse in Europe – he boasts a mark of 129 – and it is great that he has been kept in training.

Rouget has already said Almanzor will run in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. Might he also examine his stamina by running him in the QIPCO-sponsored King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over a couple of furlongs further at the same track the following month?

Minding carried all before her last season and achieved four wins in the Champions Series and her versatility – she won at the highest level between eight and 12 furlongs in 2016 – means her trainer, Aidan O’Brien, will have a range of options.

Meanwhile, Postponed won the Investec Coronation Cup in supreme style last term before dropping back in distance and landing the Juddmonte International Stakes.

He has suffered successive defeats in Dubai this year but Roger Varian, trainer of the six-year-old, is convinced he will bounce back to his best in the summer. He has pencilled him in for a defence of the Coronation Cup, with a tilt at the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes – which he won in 2015 – likely to follow.

Jack Hobbs only completed in one race last season because of injury but the 2015 Investec Derby runner-up, who went one better in the Irish equivalent, indicated he would be making up for lost time when landing the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan with great authority last Saturday.

Highland Reel ran below-par in that contest but it would be folly to write off last year’s all-the-way King George winner.

Hawkbill, who won the Coral-Eclipse last year, My Dream Boat, who landed the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, and Mutakayyef are other older horses who have been kept in training.

It is too early to suggest which of the Classic generation might emerge on the scene but Churchill, favourite for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and Investec Derby, is among those who could add more fireworks.

THIS YEAR’S MIDDLE DISTANCE SCHEDULE
June 2: Investec Coronation Cup at Epsom
June 3: Investec Derby at Epsom
June 21: Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot
July 8: Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown
July 29: King George VI And Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot
August 23: Juddmonte International Stakes at York
October 21: QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot

Almanzor wins the QIPCO Champion Stakes Ascot in October. Picture: Racingfotos.com