HENRY CANDY can stage a welcome return to the limelight by lifting today's Tote Ebor Handicap at York with Beauchamp Jade. In the 1980s Candy grabbed the headlines when he trained the likes of Master Willie, Time Charter and Nicholas Bill to Pattern race success.
But since then he has beaten something of a retreat as his five recent seasonal totals of 16, 21, six, 13 and 16 testify. But in Beauchamp Jade, Candy has a filly capable of catapulting him back into the big time.
The daughter of Kalaglow went without a win as a three year old but has more than atoned in 1996, having won three of her five races. In May she won 12 furlong handicaps at Newmarket and Doncaster and then went on to run a fine race when fourth to Tykevor in the Bessborough Handicap at Royal Ascot the following month.
Held back during the early stages, the grey was beginning to make progress towards the lead once the field had turned for home but was repeatedly denied a clear run. Once a gap presented itself, Beauchamp Jade motored but it was too much to ask for her to make up the deficit and she was still five lengths down at the line.
She gained some measure of compensation when defeating Desert Frolic by half a length, the pair 11 lengths clear of the third, at Leicester last time out, giving the distinct impression she could have won by further had Gary Carter so desired.
Beauchamp Jade incurs a 4lb penalty for that victory, but should be able to confirm placings with the second. She has not encountered the Ebor's 14 furlong trip before but the indications are, given the way she finished at Ascot, that she should find it within her compass.
Carteronce again takes the ride and the combination is given the nap vote to lift the £100,000 added prize.
Bryan Smart's Sil Sila can prove her success in the Prix de Diane Hermes by taking the Group One Aston Upthorpe Yorkshire Oaks. The Marju filly belied her odds of almost 30 to 1 when beating Miss Tahiti by a length, held up in a strongly run race and producing a powerful run to lead close home.
The French equivalent of the Oaks is run over an extended mile and a quarter, but the 12 furlongs at the Knavesmire should not pose a problem for Sil Sila, who is confidently expected to follow up.
The Group Two Scottish Equitable Gimcrack Stakes should go to The West. Paul Cole has an embarrassment of riches in the juvenile department this season and there was much to like about the Gone West colt's debut in a newcomers' race at Goodwood earlier in the month.
Alec Stewart's Fahim, who has proved a thorn in the handicapper's side this summer, can complete a four timer in the Motability Rated Stakes. The assessor struggled to weigh the Green Desert colt down after he justified odds of 2 to 5 in a Beverley maiden in June, with the result that valuable handicaps at Newmarket and Goodwood have followed.
