RACING:SO YOU Think has been installed a hot-favourite to finish off his racing career on a Group One high in Saturday's Coral-Eclipse Stakes and provide trainer Aidan O'Brien with another piece of history in the Sandown feature.
Ireland’s champion trainer has a quartet of entries among the 15 left in the 10 furlong event and victory for one of them will give O’Brien a sixth Eclipse success, tying the race record with the legendary Alec Taylor from the early part of the last century.
So You Think came out best in a memorable clash with Workforce last year to add to an illustrious list of Ballydoyle winners that also includes Mount Nelson (2008), Oratorio (2005), Hawk Wing (2002) and Giants Causeway (2000).
If the ex-Australian star wins again he will be just the sixth to pull of an Eclipse double and the first since Halling in 1995-96.
Some bookmakers have installed So You Think a shade of odds-on to sign off on a high before heading Down Under to begin a stallion career. “The plan at the moment is the Eclipse next Saturday and that possibly could be his last race before going back to Australia,” O’Brien indicated at the weekend.
Daddy Long Legs, Robin Hood and Windsor have also been left in a race that will see last year’s King George winner Nathaniel, Henry Cecil’s stalwart Twice Over and the Derby flop Bonfire among the opposition.
Godolphin have supplemented Farhh, third to So You Think in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, into the race and also have the Dubai World Cup winner Monterosso as a candidate.
In other news, the former Cheltenham hero Captain Cee Bee will revert back to jumps for his next start after securing a valuable flat race success at the Curragh on Sunday. It was the JP McManus-owned star’s first win on the level in five years and he will now try and repeat his success of last year in the Grade Two Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary in just under three weeks’ time. “Class is permanent, he is something else,” his trainer Eddie Harty said yesterday. “He’ll probably go back hurdling now and we will look at the Kevin McManus Bookmaker Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary next.”
Born To Sea is a candidate for the Irish Champion Stakes on September 8th following his second-placed finish in Saturday’s Irish Derby. The improving John Oxx-trained colt gave Camelot a mini-fright at the Curragh when he got to within two lengths of Ballydoyle’s Triple Crown aspirant.
The leading Japanese jockey Masami Matsuoka will experience very testing conditions at Gowran Park this evening where he has a couple of rides for his Irish-based compatriot Takashi Kodama.
Matsuoka (28) enjoyed a three month Irish sojourn with John Oxx in 2006 and has developed a high profile at home since then with Group One victories including a 2009 success in the famous Tenno Sho aboard Meiner Kitz.
His best chance tonight looks to be on Asian Wings, runner-up to Lough Ferrib at Fairyhouse, in the nine furlong handicap while he also teams up with one of Kodama’s runners in the concluding fillies maiden. That race looks good though for the Ballydoyle hope Circle, runner-up on her Leopardstown debut, while Joseph O’Brien’s decision to partner Freedom Fighter among a trio of Ballydoyle newcomers in the mile maiden will sway many punters.
Bold Thady Quill has a 5lb penalty for sluicing through the mud at the Curragh over the weekend but can confirm placings with Potomac in the first of the nine furlong handicaps.
