John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on Friday.
Three points of interest
Buick up for another Challenge
William Buick won the Challenge Stakes in 2021 on Al Suhail and 2022 on Pogo and has good prospects of winning Newmarket’s seven-furlong Group 2 contest (15:00) for the third time in four years on Noble Dynasty for Al Suhail’s trainer Charlie Appleby.
Lightly raced in his younger days, the now six-year-old gelding, a half-brother to high-class Godolphin performer Barney Roy, has won in each of his four seasons of racing and has returned better than ever this year having missed the whole of 2023. Noble Dynasty boasts a particularly good record at Newmarket too, having won on each of his last four visits, both on the July course and here on the Rowley Mile. Under a well-judged ride from Buick, he made all in a handicap at the Guineas meeting here in May when conceding over a stone to the now-smart English Oak and followed up in a messy renewal of the Criterion Stakes in June to gain a first pattern-race victory.
Noble Dynasty’s last run in the Lennox Stakes at Goodwood can be ignored as he anticipated the start which resulted in him being slowly away, meaning that he couldn’t adopt his usual positive tactics. Last season’s 2000 Guineas third Royal Scotsman and Quinault who has run up a hat-trick in listed races head the opposition, but Noble Dynasty just has the edge on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and makes the most appeal.
Ballydoyle versus Godolphin in the Fillies’ Mile
Both Group 1 races at Newmarket’s Future Champions Festival feature a clash between leading contenders representing Aidan O’Brien and Charlie Appleby, and 24 hours before the colts in the Dewhurst, some of the stables’ leading two-year-old fillies take each other on in the Fillies’ Mile (15:35).
Godolphin won three consecutive editions of the race between 2010 and 2012 before Appleby became the operation’s main trainer and he’s still seeking to win it for the first time. O’Brien, on the other hand, who ran up a hat-trick of his own between 2014 and 2016, won it for a sixth time last year with Ylang Ylang. Ballydoyle have a numerical advantage this year, and all three of their fillies look open to improvement. Ryan Moore picks January, on whom he won a listed race at Tipperary, though Timeform’s top-rated is Tom Marquand’s mount Dreamy, winner of both her starts including a Group 3 at the Curragh last time. Ascot novice winner Ballet Slippers, out of Ballydoyle’s high-class mare Magical, can’t be ruled out either.
But on what could be a very good day for Appleby and Buick, the unbeaten Desert Flower can prove too good for the Balldoyle trio, as well as Anna Swan and Tabiti, both also unbeaten, representing Sir Michael Stoute and Ralph Beckett respectively. Desert Flower has looked a potential top-notcher in running up a hat-trick and there was plenty to like again about her latest victory when stepping up to a mile for the first time when beating January a length and a half in the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster.
Copper Knight bids to win ‘his’ race again
Meanwhile at York, Tim Easterby’s veteran sprinter Copper Knight once again contests the Copper Knight – Winning Most Horse at York Handicap (15:45). The ten-year-old who recently ran his 101st race boasts seven wins over the five furlongs here (plus one over five and a half furlongs) and won the corresponding event way back in 2018.
He has also contested the last two renewals which have been named in honour of his excellent record at the Knavesmire, finishing seventh in 2022 and sixth last year behind Wen Moon who is in the field again. With cheekpieces refitted for only the second time this season, a bold show from Copper Knight at the foot of the weights would come as no surprise, having showed with a win at Chester in June from a higher mark than today’s that he still has plenty of enthusiasm.
He’s not the only ten-year-old in the line-up with a fine record at York, either, as Michael Dods’ six-time course winner Dakota Gold also takes his chance, he too successful earlier this season, at Redcar. But it’s some of the younger members of the field who make most appeal, and while Wen Moon should go well again off a 4 lb lower mark than last year, and with conditions set to be similarly testing, preference is for Sam England’s hold-up performer Trilby who has been in good form all year, winning three times, and heads the Timeform ratings here, still looking on a good mark after being the first home in his group when runner-up at Haydock last time.
Tip of the Day
Mount Atlas – 16:10 Newmarket
Flags: Hot Trainer, Jockey Uplift, Top-Rated
Andrew Balding won last year’s Old Rowley Cup with Alsakib and the in-form trainer has a good chance of winning the mile and a half heritage handicap for three-year-olds again, this time with Mount Atlas.
The unexposed son of Derby winner Masar looks as though he’s been saved for this valuable prize ever since making a successful handicap debut at Ascot at the end of July. Progressing again, having won a maiden at Redcar two starts earlier, Mount Atlas did well to come from the back of the field at Ascot after travelling well in a steadily-run race and stayed on well to beat older rival Insanity by half a length. That form worked out well as the runner-up went one better back at Ascot’s Shergar Cup meeting while the third, Tabletalk, won the Melrose at York.
Open to further improvement, Mount Atlas is partnered for the first time by champion-elect Oisin Murphy and looks capable of making light of a 7 lb higher mark than last time, heading the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings by 1 lb.
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