Mike Cattermole on Serpentine, Love, Highest Ground and more

Last Saturday’s runaway Investec Derby and Oaks winners, Serpentine and Love, evoked memories of both Slip Anchor and Oh So Sharp, who landed the Epsom Classics in similar style in 1985.

Slip Anchor’s career ended in anti-climax, while Oh So Sharp went on to equine immortality by landing the Fillies Triple Crown.

What will the future hold for both Serpentine and Love?

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE SERPENTINE

Aidan O’Brien’s fourth string of six he may have been, but what an emphatic winner of the Investec Derby Serpentine was.

Credit where credit is due, for a five-and-half length winner of the Derby has to be given the utmost respect. He looked the part - a lithe, athletic specimen with a long stride - handled the track beautifully and was just way too good for them.

Emmet McNamara, a Derby debutant and riding with confidence on the back of some buoyant instructions from the master of Ballydoyle, rode the perfect race and very much in the spirit of Steve Cauthen on Slip Anchor some 35 years before.

There were some comments made about some of the other jockeys allowing the winner too much rope but, whatever your thoughts about that, you couldn’t include Tom Marquand, on the 50-1 shot Khalifa Sat, among them. Nor indeed William Buick on the third, Amhran Na Bhfiann.

In fact the first three home occupied those same positions after the field had covered just the first two furlongs of the race. Nothing else ever threatened to get involved.

It was ironic that Marquand, taken off English King due to his inexperience at Epsom, gave his mount every chance and ended up finishing in front of the Ed Walker-trained colt who boiled over before the start and never seemed to get into a rhythm for Frankie Dettori. He only got going in the last furlong.

Kameko ran on odd race, keeping on, but had pulled way too hard early on to give himself a chance of doing himself justice.

It will be fascinating to see how the Derby form works out but Serpentine is clearly very good and will probably make an even better four-year-old.

In fact, what will the future hold for him?

At the moment, the son of Galileo and Oaks runner-up Remember When, looks an ideal type for the St Leger where the expanse of Town Moor will be right up his street.

Note, however, that Ballydoyle’s last St Leger winner, Kew Gardens in 2018, has just been retired and is being promoted as a jumps stallion at Coolmore. Similarly with their 2017 Leger winner Capri, also a winner of the Irish Derby.

Is that what awaits Serpentine? It would seem the obvious path, so will that always be what any stoutly-bred Derby winner can offer in the breeding sheds, going forward? It makes you think about what is really means, commercially, in this day and age about winning the world’s most famous Flat race.

No doubt Messrs Magnier, Smith and Tabor will be mulling things over. In 1985, Henry Cecil planned to run Slip Anchor in the King George and the Leger but plans were changed when injury intervened.

Cecil was forced to drop Slip Anchor back in trip in the Champion Stakes and he wasn’t disgraced when second to Pebbles. Indeed, a Champion Stakes in a straight line at Newmarket, as it was in those days, would have been a better option for Serpentine than the current edition at Ascot.

So how can Serpentine be transformed into a more “commercial” proposition? Perhaps consider the King George at Ascot later this month and a clash with Enable? Beat that legend and it would help.

Then, what about a drop back in trip and a go at the Juddmonte International?

Mind you, another pretty decent front-runner awaits there in Ghaiyyath.

Or, maybe go full tilt at the Leger with a traditional trial such as the Great Voltigeur on the way and then perhaps tackle the shorter trips next year.

The making of Serpentine, the stallion, is going to make for a fascinating story.

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

Love was all class in the Oaks, hacking up by nine long lengths and clocking a time 0.37 seconds quicker than Serpentine did just over an hour later.

If she had run in the Derby, remember she would have received 3lb from the colts and so on the evidence we have, would have won that by around a couple of lengths.

Love has now won the first two legs of the Fillies Triple Crown and has done so more impressively than Oh So Sharp who won the Guineas in a three-way photo and landed her Oaks by a “mere” six lengths.

So, another decision for “the lads”. Will they be tempted to try and emulate Oh So Sharp head for the Leger?

Love has a superb temperament to go along with her immense ability and the sky really is the limit for her. Her first clash against the older generations is going to be fascinating, especially when she crosses paths with Enable.

John Gosden’s superstar heads to the King George now after her highly satisfactory reappearance in last Sunday’s Eclipse.

The King George was Oh So Sharp’s next port of call after Epsom – although she was beaten. Will that be the chosen route for Love?

Will Ascot stage the clash of the female titans?

HIGHEST GROUND STEPS UP AT YORK

The Derby came too soon for the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Highest Ground and instead he takes his next step forward in the new July version of the Dante Stakes at York on Thursday.

Speaking to Ryan Moore last week, there is no doubt about the potential of the son of Frankel and the former champion will be disappointed that he can’t maintain the partnership at York as he is required by Aidan O’Brien at Newmarket.

Oisin Murphy steps in and is fully expected to become the latest admiring member of the expanding Highest Ground fan club.

COX LINES UP THIRD JULY CUP

Lethal Force and Harry Angel won the July Cup for Clive Cox in recent years and now Golden Horde, Lethal Force’s son, heads the market for Saturday’s renewal at Newmarket.

He goes there with his trainer extremely happy about his well-being and noting that the Commonwealth Cup form passed its first test in Ireland at the weekend, when the Ascot fifth Millisle, beaten six lengths by Golden Horde, chased home the exciting Art Power (at two and half lengths) at Naas.

What the weather does is of no concern to Cox as Golden Horde has demonstrated that he handles any ground, whether heavy or good to firm.

He is the 5-2 favourite with Sky Bet and is very much the one to beat.

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