Several high-profile juveniles could take aim at the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes this year - and David Ord says it's easy to see why.
If you owned a quick two-year-old – no a very quick one – you’d have a look at the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes wouldn’t you?
And it seems connections are. Expect an armada of juveniles lining up against their elders next month.
It’s a race that two-year-olds have enjoyed success in before – Lyric Fantasy (1992) and Kingsgate Native (2007) the most recent winners from the age group.
But in the last ten years representation has been sparse. Chipotle did turn up in 2021 but was never a threat, finishing ninth behind Winter Power. In 2016 Prince Of Lir and Yalta answered the bugle for the first-season sprinters but were big prices and ran accordingly.
And even Acapulco couldn’t take advantage of the weight she received in 2015, unable to fend off the late thrust of Mecca's Angel with the others well beaten. Make no mistake it doesn’t represent easy-pickings for a young speedball – so why are so many weighing up a tilt this year?
Well the answer is the domestic five-furlong horses aren’t scaring them away.
At Royal Ascot Nature Strip was much too good for them – Twilight Calls emerging as the best of British in second, four-and-a-half lengths adrift.
There might be a Group One in Henry Candy’s sprinter one day, but York isn’t always the easiest place for a hold-up horse to excel – for all he has one helluva cruising speed.
On Timeform weight-adjusted ratings for York he sits fourth on 119, four pounds adrift of Highfield Princess (123).
She’s a wonderful mare who goes well at the Knavesmire. If the heavens opened, much to the relief of Yorkshire Water, she’s a big player. But would she be enough to tempt, say the Dramatised team, to switch from this to the Sky Bet Lowther?
One pound below on 122p is Royal Acclaim off the back of her three wins from three starts this season. A fluent victory in the John Smiths City Walls Stakes here last time was achieved in the manner of one who would take high rank.
This could be her coronation day – but Dramatised is also on 122p after a fluent success in the Queen Mary and goodness knows where here ceiling might lie. She’d have eight stone to carry at York – Twilight Calls would be conceding her 27 pounds, Highfield Princess 24 and Royal Acclaim 22.
From being lukewarm about the five-furlong showpiece, Karl Burke has warmed somewhat to it in recent weeks and the sight of Khaadem beating the fast-finishing Raasel in the Qatar King George Stakes at Goodwood would hardly have had him lurching back to Plan A.
The runner-up finished with a rare rattle but again would he find things happening too quickly for him in a Nunthorpe? He could never land a blow against Fine Wine in a big handicap at the Dante Meeting at the track in May. He’s improved since – and might well do so again – but it’s what happens in the first three furlongs rather than the last two that are the concern over him.
If Dramatised was mine she’d be bound for the Nunthorpe – a genuine shot to nothing – and you sense she could be joined by three or four other two-year-olds.
The most interesting would be Little Big Bear for the sponsors. He’s won his last three and was very impressive in the Anglesey Stakes last time. Immediately afterwards Aidan O’Brien suggested the lightning-fast son of No Nay Never could even be a Dewhurst horse in the autumn. He didn’t look one in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot and they chose to leave him in this at the latest acceptance stage.
Then there’s Persian Force, the very first two-year-old to play his cards this year and one whose story is of gradual progress since, winning the July Stakes at Newmarket last time.
Richard Hannon thinks he’s a Guineas colt for 2023 and he hasn’t run at five furlongs since the Brocklesby a week after the Cheltenham Festival but he’s quick – he’s good – and he’s battle hardened.
Phoenix Stakes, Gimcrack or Nunthorpe?
There’s a dilemma facing Middleham Park Racing over The Platinum Queen too.
She was brilliant at Goodwood – outclassing her rivals in the British EBF Alice Keppel Fillies' Conditions Stakes. It was a performance – and time – that suggested she’d have taken a bit of beating in the Molecomb earlier on the card too.
But where now? The Roses Stakes is the obvious route but if connections wanted to borrow Johnny G’s big dice – and stump up £40,000 - then there’s this Group One prize too.
And the feeling is they are going to try and roll a double six.
And why not? What’s the alternative? Wait 12 months and hope you’ve improved sufficiently to be a big player again on the revised terms – and hope too that the bar remains 123 on Timeform ratings.
For perspective The Platinum Queen would slot in on a weight-adjusted mark of 116+ off the back of Goodwood.
Had there been a Dayjur, Oasis Dream, Battaash or Nature Strip waiting in the wings at York she’d be bound for the Roses.
But there isn’t. And that’s why £40,000 to win £283,550 might be a gamble they’re prepared to take.
It’s also why, for the first time in a while, the kids are heading to the Nunthorpe in numbers.
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