Faster ground the key as Ghostwriter takes on Derby winner City Of Troy in Coral-Eclipse

FASTER GROUND THE KEY AS GHOSTWRITER TAKES ON DERBY WINNER CITY OF TROY IN CORAL-ECLIPSE

Clive Cox can’t wait to see his Prix du Jockey Club fourth Ghostwriter on much drier ground colt at Sandown on Saturday, where he is one of seven hopefuls taking on the impressive Betfred Derby winner City Of Troy in the £750,000 Coral-Eclipse Stakes.

City Of Troy ran out a two-and-three-quarter length winner at Epsom, from two colts who franked the form in Sunday’s Irish Derby, and is rightly a strong odds-on chance for Sandown’s QIPCO British Champions Series event and would clearly be very hard to beat. 

However Cox and others can take a measure of hope from what happened in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, where  City Of Troy’s race was effectively over with more than two furlongs to go and Ghostwriter finished an excellent fourth.

We are all realistic about what we saw in the Derby. We are highly respectful of that.

“I think we are all realistic about what we saw in the Derby, which was a supreme performance,” Cox said. “We are highly respectful of that, but we feel that a mile and a quarter at Sandown is the best route for Ghostwriter and just hope that conditions remain on the drier side.”

He added: “Ghostwriter has always had that little bit of a swagger and a visible confidence in everything he’s done. He’s a colt we’ve always held in high regard and he was an admirable two-year-old, when he was unbeaten and he finished off with a very good win in the Royal Lodge Stakes. I still think there’s more to come.

“His fourth in the Guineas was another commendable effort, and that form has been franked by the Hannon colts Rosallion and Haatem. They finished just in front of him at Newmarket and have flown the flag for the Guineas since in Ireland and at Royal Ascot. We hoped he’d deal with what we thought would be just slightly easier ground in France, but the times were reflective of proper soft ground and I think it just took a little bit of his punch away from him. 

“We are pleased to remain at a mile and a quarter and we are very much looking forward to Saturday. The way he finished off on the rising ground in the Royal Lodge was very pleasing and I see no reason why Sandown won’t suit him.”

Richard Kingscote, who has missed only one of Ghostwriter’s five races, is on board again for owner Jeff Smith, who enjoyed the first of many successes at this level 40 years ago, and will also be represented by the Andrew Balding-trained filly See The Fire (David Probert), who shaped as if she was ready for this longer trip when fifth in Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes.

O’Brien, who has already won the Eclipse a record seven times, likes to leave no stone unturned in his preparation. However, he blamed himself for what happened to City Of Troy at Newmarket, saying: “I made mistakes training him and that’s the bottom line.”

That showed at least that O’Brien is fallible, and so too is City Of Troy, who had ended his unbeaten two-year-old campaign rated head and shoulders above his contemporaries. What’s more, dropping back in trip for the Coral-Eclipse represents a distinct departure from O’Brien’s normal modus operandi, as none of his nine previous Derby winners ran at Sandown, the Irish Derby almost invariably having been the next stop.

The only Derby winners to win the Eclipse since Mill Reef in 1971 have been Nashwan (1989), Sea The Stars (2009) and Golden Horn (the last to try, in 2015). Authorized and Motivator, the only others to try this century, were both impressive at Epsom but failed to follow up at Sandown when starting at odds not dissimilar to City Of Troy’s.

Shoemark aboard Dancing Gemini

Besides Ghostwriter the main threats to City Of Troy are probably fellow three-year-olds Dancing Gemini, second in the French 2000 Guineas and sixth in the Derby, and Jayarebe, who won the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Dancing Gemini represents the stable of Roger Teal, which often punches above its weight and had Steele Tango finish fifth at 100-1 in Sea The Stars’ particularly hot renewal. Dancing Gemini is second favourite in the absence of Luxembourg and White Birch and Teal is confident he can at least finish much closer to City of Troy here than at Epsom, where he looked a non-stayer. He’ll be ridden for the first time by Kieran Shoemark, who won on the dam Lady Adelaide for owner David Fish. 

Teal said: “Dancing Gemini had a wide trip in the Derby and got further back than we wanted him to be, then just failed to stay the mile and a half the way he was positioned. I think the step back to a mile and a quarter will be right up his street. We’ve got to respect City Of Troy, but we just have to roll our sleeves up and do what we do. He’s fit and he’s well, and if we can get anywhere near him we’ll have run a blinder.”

Brian Meehan, who won the Eclipse back in 2006 with David Junior, thought very carefully before declaring Jayarebe, mindful that the Eclipse comes just 16 days after the colt’s good win at Royal Ascot.

Meehan, who has always held the colt in the highest regard and ran him in a Group 1 on Arc weekend on just his second start, said: “I know they thought King’s Gambit was an unlucky loser at Royal Ascot, but Sean (Levey) committed Jayarebe early and he hit the line strong. We ran a very straightforward race and I don’t think you could say we were lucky winners.

He’s done nothing wrong. He’s very very good and he’s going to keep improving

“He’s very progressive and apart from Chester, where he didn’t handle the track, he’s done nothing wrong. He’s very very good and he’s going to keep improving.”

Reminiscing about his 2006 win he added: “David Junior was a great horse and won three Group 1s for me. He was very prolific and he’d already won a Champion Stakes and a Dubai Duty Free when he went to Sandown. The Champion Stakes and the Eclipse are bucket list races. They are high on everyone’s wish list, so it was great to win them both.”

Joseph out to spoil the party

The Eclipse is traditionally the first meaningful middle-distance clash of the generations, and honours have been fairly evenly divided over the decades. However, the older generation’s representatives, comprising  Al Riffa, Stay Alert and City Of Troy’s stable-mate Hans Andersen, who will presumably ensure a solid pace, are relative outsiders this time.

Al Riffa, who is trained by O’Brien’s son Joseph, has run only four times in the last two years and was last seen at Saratoga four weeks ago, where he finished a close-up sixth in the Manhattan Stakes. He will be ridden by Dancing Gemini’s recent partner Dylan Browne McMonagle.

Stay Alert, a good winner of Newmarket’s Dahlia Stakes on her reappearance, makes a quick reappearance after finishing in rear in last Saturday’s Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, a race in which last year she gained her sole Group 1 placing.