Emily Upjohn the hot favourite in a field of five for the Holland Cooper Coronation Cup

Last year’s impressive winner Emily Upjohn will face four classy rivals when she bids for a repeat in Friday’s Coronation Cup.

The 2022 Oaks second showed an electric change of gear when beating the top-class male Westover by a length and three-quarters 12 months ago, and John Gosden has been targeting a return for this QIPCO British Champions Series event since her reappearance fifth behind last weekend’s big Hong Kong winner Rebel’s Romance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March. 

She worked very nicely last week and I’m pleased with her

Gosden, who trains the mare in partnership with his son Thady, has been happy with her preparation and he is looking forward to seeing her in action again on the track. He said: “She worked very nicely last week and I’m pleased with her. It was a very good run I thought earlier in the year in the Sheema Classic, where they played with the pace. I liked the way she finished her race off and she wasn’t beaten far.

“It’s not easy with fillies in March, training them in the winter, and she’d been off since the previous July, so she needed to get back on track. She ran a lovely race and she’s done well physically since then.” 

He added: “This was always the next step for her. We are trying to follow the same sort of path as last year when she went on to Sandown for the Eclipse and was beaten only half a length by Paddington. I don’t know what happened when she ran in the King George after that, but about four of them ran appallingly that day. Take nothing from the winner there, but it was a very strange race.

“She handles Epsom well and was a touch unlucky in the Oaks, but that’s life.” 

Success here would give a huge boost to jockey Kieran Shoemark, who had big boots to fill when taking over from Frankie Dettori as the Gosdens’ number one and is blameless for what has been a slower than ideal start for the new combination after such a wet spring.  

Don’t rule out O’Brien

Aidan O’Brien has won the Coronation Cup a record eight times, including with triple scorer St Nicholas Abbey, but he hasn’t been successful since the globe-trotting Highland Reel beat Frontiersman in 2017.

O’Brien relies upon Luxembourg, who was favourite for the 2022 Derby until meeting a setback and has since won an Irish Champion Stakes and a Tattersalls Gold Cup, both over a mile and a quarter.

Luxembourg was among those who finished well ahead of Emily Upjohn in fourth place in that mystifying King George, but his form over a mile and a half is none too convincing. Nevertheless, if the betting is a guide he is the biggest threat to Emily Upjohn.

There hasn’t been a French-trained winner since that popular veteran Cirrus Des Aigles beat his compatriot Flintshire ten years ago, but Feed The Flame is a worthy challenger from the Pascal Bary stable. A good winner of Longchamp’s Grand Prix de Paris last summer, from Adelaide River and Oaks winner Soul Sister, he was most recently a close third in the Prix Ganay at the same course.

Bary has six French Derbys and many of the biggest races in the world on a CV that includes just about every race worth winning in France bar the Arc, but he has had only one runner here since Natagora won the 1000 Guineas in 2008, and that was almost ten years ago.

Feed The Flame would merit plenty of respect on his bare form, but the fact that his appearance here ends such a long absence for the stable adds further weight to his claims.

Time Lock will be Harry Charlton’s first Group 1 runner since his father Roger came off their joint licence at the end of last year. He has made a fine start to his first season in sole charge at Beckhampton, and Time Lock should be all the better for her second behind shock winner Outbox in Newmarket’s Jockey Club Stakes earlier this month. She will race in cheekpieces for the first time.

He’s very reliable and never lets us down

The likely easy ground has drawn William Haggas towards the race for eight-year-old Hamish, who has won his last five races, the most recent of them at Newbury last month. Hamish is owned by Haggas’ father Brian and he is ridden every morning by wife Maureen, so it’s no wonder he is such a favourite at home.

He has 11 wins to his name in total, eight of them at Group 3 level but none any higher than that, and he finished second in the Irish St Leger two years ago on a rare venture into Group 1 company. While Haggas admits that the Coronation Cup is “a bit above his grade”, he added that he’s “very reliable and never lets us down”.