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John and Thady Gosden two-year-olds to follow

By Matt Brocklebank

Horse Racing

Tue July 02, 2024 · 5M ago

Our man reckons it a matter of time before John and Thady Gosden have a juvenile winner again and there are four youngsters of interest this week.

It’s not unusual for John and Thady Gosden to miss out on the early fun with their two-year-olds. It’s just not how the Clarehaven operation goes about its business and never really has been. Patience clearly outweighs the desire for early speed with the majority of their owners and it’s a formula that works extremely well.

In recent years – or more specifically since they became the latest father-son training duo in the spring of 2021 – the Gosdens have been responsible for a dozen horses who have been successful at Group 1 level, only a couple of which (Inspiral and Commisioning) made their two-year-old debut before July 31. Those two were late-June and late-July newcomers respectively.

The likes of Mishriff, Lord North, Soul Sister, Audience and Nashwa all first stepped foot on the racecourse proper during the month of October; Emily Upjohn and Loving Dream were November debutants; while neither Mostahdaf nor Courage Mon Ami appeared in public at all as juveniles.

As a pair the Gosdens have had just 71 juvenile starters throughout the months of May, June and July, enjoying 14 such winners during those specific periods at a respectable strike-rate close to 20%.

But the numbers in May (0-3), June (1-5) and July (0-6) last year weren’t very inspiring at all and, while the hit-rates picked up nicely enough in the latter parts of the summer into the back-end of the season, a lack of quality youngers in 2023 was recently referred to by Gosden snr in light of their particularly weak Classic crop this time around.

So how is 2024 looking?

Not brilliant would be the crude answer. The stable has yet to send out their first juvenile winner of the season, but history shows it's obviously still too early to say and things could be about to get rolling with four Gosden-trained youngsters well worth keeping an eye on entered up over the next few days.

Glistening (Frankel)

Runs: 3.30 Yarmouth Thursday

Owned by Juddmonte, Glistening is a Frankel filly out of the Group 2 winner Soffia, who has already produced Glistening’s full-sister Quadruple who opened her account when winning a Limerick handicap for Ger Lyons only last month.

Glistening has been given seven-furlong options at Yarmouth, Kempton and Haydock and it may be significant that Gosden introduced another Frankel filly (Frisella) for the same owners in the Haydock race six years ago, that one going down by half a length having been sent off the 6/5 favourite.

Wicked (Kingman)

Entries: 3.40 Sandown Friday

Bought out of Tattersalls Book 1 as a yearling for 600,000 guineas, Wicked will make his debut in the silks of Wathnan Racing, who were major backers of the Gosden yard from the very beginning of their venture into British racing.

It was an extremely successful partnership from the off too, Courage Mon Ami and Gregory winning at Royal Ascot last summer, and it’s perhaps a shape surprising to see that both Richard Fahey and Hamad Al-Jehani have had more runners than the Gosdens for Wathnan so far this year.

The beautifully-bred Kingman colt Wicked looks the sort who could be worth the wait, however, as he’s closely related (three-parts brother) to 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia and a half to St Mark’s Basilica.

Friday’s Sandown novice over seven furlongs seems a likely starting point, not least because the stable’s two runners since winning it in 2018 with King Of Comedy have both filled the runner-up spot. It's apparently a race they like.

Magna Grecia is clear in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas

Aegean Sea (Kingman)

Entries: 3.40 Sandown Friday

Aegean Sea has the same two options as Wicked and while his pedigree isn’t quite so eye-popping, he’s another son of Kingman with a lot going for him on paper and, crucially, he has a promising debut effort to draw upon too.

After being forced to skip possible engagements at Leicester (withdrawn) and Haydock (unsuitable ground), Aegean Sea proved easy to back on his debut in a Sandown maiden in the middle of last month but put in an encouraging effort in third behind 50/1 winner Dividend.

Another 50/1 shot finished second and he’s since finished well down the field at 150s in the Chesham at the Royal meeting, so perhaps the form shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but the Gosden runner did well in the circumstances having received an early bump and taken a while for the penny to drop late on.

He’ll be a much sharper model all round at the second time of asking and, whether it’s Haydock or back to Sandown, should be going close very soon.

Beshaayir wins at the Curragh

Pantile Warrior (Frankel)

Entries: 3.40 Sandown Friday

With Wicked and Aegean Sea both also having the option at Haydock a day earlier too, there must be a chance the Gosden team will at least run Pantile Warrior in Sandown’s Friday contest as the Frankel colt isn’t in anywhere else this week.

He’s a relatively new recruit having breezed at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up sale in mid-April but he’s a half-brother to six winners, including Group Two scorer Beshaayir, and must be showing enough at home to be considered ready for action at this point.

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