Horses to follow after opening day of the Flat season in Britain

Hard not to be happy for Gemini connections

There was clearly a sense of expectation surrounding Dancing Gemini in Saturday’s William Hill Doncaster Mile. Not only was he backed into 9/4 favourite despite seemingly having nothing in hand over his closest rivals in the market, I have it on good authority his eminently likeable trainer Roger Teal was pacing particularly briskly before chuntering into his binoculars as the horses circled down at the start of Saturday’s contest.

It was a bit of a feelgood winner for the opening day of the 2025 Flat season in truth, Lambourn man Teal seemingly having a high opinion of the horse from day one – so high, in fact, that he pitched the son of Camelot into the French Guineas, the Derby and the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown last year.

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Quite how he ended his Classic campaign winless must have caused a few sleepless nights through the winter, but he’s resumed a more mature, stronger individual at four by the looks of it and the big question now is whether he can kick on as miler.

Teal half-joked that he’d like to take the ‘Charyn route’ now, and who could blame him in light of last year’s Doncaster Mile winner going on to win four more races in Group 1 or Group 2 company, although things will inevitably get tougher from this point.

I’d agree with Teal’s assessment that he didn’t have a particularly hard race on Saturday and sometimes keeping the ball rolling, in this instance heading for a race like the bet365 Mile at Sandown in a month’s time – very much the Charyn route – might be sensible, but equally if they’re happy to wait for the Lockinge, a clash with Rosallion is something to savour.

Dancing Gemini would no doubt need to raise his game again but Teal showed with top sprinter Oxted a few years ago that he’s not to be underestimated when the right ammunition falls his way and this exciting horse should continue to provide connections with a lot of fun as the year goes on.

Old boy still has a few tricks up his sleeve

Full credit to Cieren Fallon for his daring and ultimately rewarding ride on Godwinson in the Lincoln. His task looked daunting at best when still at the back as the pace appeared to quicken sharply with a couple of furlongs to run, but the horse travelled like a dream whenever Fallon asked him and appeared to love weaving between rivals late on. He’ll continue to be a force in these big handicaps after a small rise.

In behind, Orne initially and then a switching Magnum Opus both appeared to cause interference to a number of their rivals with just over a furlong to travel, and plenty of the well-beaten horses can be given another chance.

They include the Wolverhampton Trial eyecatcher Whip Cracker, who I had quite high hopes for, but the one who might offer most value next time out is Old Cock, who ended up dead last of the 22 runners on Saturday.

He’s obviously a bit of a tricky customer as he either wins or doesn’t make much impression, but I think he's talented and this run is best ignored as he had nowhere to go at a crucial stage, ultimately saved for another day by his rider Cal Rodriguez when the writing was on the wall.

It’s typically the sort of effort the handicapper might strike a line through and leave him alone but, having been a well-held fourth of six off the same mark on his final run at York (good to soft) last year, it’s hoped he's dropped a couple of pounds in the weights on the back of this reappearance effort.

His two wins earlier on in his three-year-old season came on good to firm going and I reckon trainer Ed Bethell can’t wait to get him back on some proper quick ground. Perhaps we’ll be made to wait another month or so for that but this horse has plenty of size about him and isn’t one to be giving up on despite the end result here.

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Nice enough trial, but don't hang it in the Louvre

And like that... trials season is upon us. I absolutely love the build-up to the Derby but you can definitely peak too soon as a punter and I'd be happy enough to sit on my hands following Sunday's fare at Leopardstown which saw Delacroix take the feature Ballysax Stakes in straightforward fashion.

I'm sure the Timeform reporters will do a more rounded job but 'best horse in race wins horserace' would be my most succinct attempt at summing it up after the 4/7 shot was sent straight to the front by Ryan Moore and never looked like being caught.

Granted, he was harried by eventual third Tiberius Thunder very early on before David Egan consented to settle back in second on that one, but I'm not convinced we learnt much new about the winner other than he's clearly trained on.

Delacroix wasn't far off the very best Ballydoyle juveniles last season, winning the Autumn Stakes before flying the flag in the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster just a couple of weeks later. He missed out by the narrowest of margins to Jessie Harrington's Hotazhell in the Group 1 but set a smart standard on his return, coming out well on top on ratings even under the penalty, and duly delivered.

Maybe he shouldn't have been quite as big as 20/1 for the Derby beforehand, but the revised 10s (in places) makes no appeal right now - not when you consider what's to come over the next three months or so.

Despite being a fraction irked by those antepost price cuts, I can't help but remain positive at the start of a new Flat season - not when you consider what's to come over the next three months or so.

The time of year for wishful thinking

“Twig looks like he might just get in, the others won’t get in,” said Ben Pauling of his Randox Grand National entries in an interview with Mick Fitz on ATR this week.

Now, I’ve backed Twig at 100/1 and was starting to think he had drifted out to around that sort of price just to make the cut, but does Pauling know something we don’t? Surely, he’s rung around a friendly trainer or two to try and gauge where the cutoff might end up being...

Maybe Paul Nicholls has reconsidered running all of his five and will look to spare Hitman or Stay Away Fay the trouble of a trip to Merseyside. Or perhaps Gordon Elliott is thinking twice about Coko Beach on weather or stamina grounds. I see that one’s stablemate Conflated was also given an entry in the Bowl and would arguably be going anywhere but the National in a world that always made perfect sense.

Will Capodanno definitely turn up again after hardly looking in love with the place in the past two editions of the race? There’s L’Homme Presse (already ruled out by connections), his mud-loving stablemate Royale Pagaille and Broadway Boy – the latter having pulled-up in the Ultima when last sighted – looking a touch dubious at the time of writing too, but more will of course be revealed at the midday confirmation stage on Monday. Maybe, just maybe, those earlier hopes around Twig running well at huge odds will be alive again, at least for a few more days.

Considering Pauling was on record stating he’d been “protecting his mark up until the weights came out” by running him over hurdles before last month’s Grimthorpe, there’s always a chance he was airing a little wishing thinking himself when the microphone was thrust in front of him, but - as I'm sure someone like Teal would attest - at this time of year who can blame him, really?

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