Sweet William owner nervous ahead of Betfred Howard Wright Doncaster Cup

By Sporting Life

10:27 · WED September 11, 2024

Owner-breeder Philippa Cooper is not entirely looking forward to Friday’s Betfred Howard Wright Doncaster Cup, even though she bred both of the market leaders and still owns the ante-post favourite.

Cooper’s Normandie Stud has long been geared towards producing high-class stayers like the John and Thady Gosden-trained stable-mates Sweet William and Gregory, who dominate the betting, and she is already a past winner of the historic Doncaster Cup with Samuel in 2010

She would love another Doncaster Cup, which is part of the 35-race QIPCO British Champions Series and pre-dates by 10 years the St Leger, our oldest Classic, and all the more so since it is run this year in memory of distinguished racing journalist Howard Wright, who she knew and admired from their work together on Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association committees.

However, she gets so emotionally attached to her horses that she finds it difficult enough watching just one of them in action, let alone two.

Friday will be the third time the pair have met this year, and Sweet William, who was named after her son and is lucky to be racing at all after breaking a hind leg at two, had the better of the argument in both the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Goodwood Cup. However, there was just a head between them on the latter track, when past Doncaster Cup winners Trueshan and Coltrane were well held, and with no Kyprios in the field this time the pair now have the spotlight on them, bringing greater expectation and more pressure.

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Cooper, who sold Gregory to Wathnan Racing just before his breakthrough win in last year’s Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, said: “I hate it when they run against each other. Having bred them both it’s like having two sons racing against each other in human terms - it’s bittersweet. I’m very proud that I’ve bred these two horses, of course I am, and I’ll go to Doncaster, but whether I watch the race or not I don’t know!”

She added: “Because I’m a ‘glass half-empty’ sort of person I feel they both have to improve to win. Sweet William, bless him, is a classy stayer, and he’s probably the most good-looking horse I’ve ever bred. He’s a half-brother to Hurricane Lane, who won the Irish Derby and St Leger after he was sold to Godolphin, and I think he would have been a proper Group 1 stayer but for his injury. But I fear he might have reached his level now.

“It’s remarkable he’s achieved so much, and he does have some speed, as he comes from behind, but I can’t make him run any faster. Although there’s no Kyprios there can always be something else.

“If they were running on soft or heavy ground Sweet William would always beat Gregory, because Gregory doesn’t enjoy any cut in the ground, but I don’t think there’s going to be much rain at Doncaster. They both had hard races at Goodwood, as it was a real ding-dong, and that’s why I asked John if Sweet William could sidestep York to be fresher for this race. I don’t think you can ask these stayers to run two miles plus every few weeks.

“It’s lovely to have two horses in the same race like this, but at the same time it’s painful. Howard Wright was a lovely, lovely man, and it’s an honour to have two horses running in a race named in his memory, but when I’ve had two in a race before it’s been very rare that they’ve both run well. That’s the ‘glass half empty’ in me again!”

Trueshan overhauls Sweet William under Hollie Doyle

Trueshan beat Sweet William by a length and a quarter when the Doncaster Cup was run on soft ground last year, when Coltrane was a hot favourite but trailed in last of five. The year before Coltrane beat Trueshan by a neck under less testing conditions.

Neither currently enjoy the convincing profiles they once had. That said, Trueshan, a three-time winner of next month’s QIPCO Long Distance Cup and a triple Group 1 winner, won a conditions race at Sandown in July and would have to be feared if the ground softened, while Coltrane showed that the ability is still there by winning the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot, when Sweet William was only third and Trueshan fourth.

Aidan O’Brien is a dual winner of the Doncaster Cup, with Septimus in 2007 and Honolulu in 2008, and he runs Point Lonsdale, who was an easy winner of Chester’s Ormonde Stakes in the spring. The five-year-old has been placed in the highest class over middle distances but finished two places behind Gregory when trying two miles in the Lonsdale Cup at York last month.

A field of six is completed by Wise Eagle, an 11-time winner for Adam Nicol since bought for just 7,000 guineas at the 2020 Horses In Training Sale but well in rear in the Sky Bet Ebor last time.

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