THE Midas touch eluded Aidan O’Brien this weekend but made a welcome return to Jean-Claude Rouget.
While O’Brien dominated the Guineas meeting at Newmarket and again at Chester, Rouget has endured a nightmare period when one of his barns was placed isolation due last month to a sudden outbreak of the Equine Herpes Virus, after which two horses were euthanized.
The light at the end of the tunnel came when Brametot got up late to win the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) at Deauville yesterday.
"It has been very hard with the virus in the yard but this horse was not in the problem barn, or else he wouldn't be running,” Rouget said. "He has an outstanding pedigree and I think he is a right horse for the [Prix du] Jockey Club."
Rivet finished third for Newmarket trainer William Haggas, who sent out Sea Of Grace to come runner-up in the fillies Classic, the the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches on Saturday. O’Brien’s runners failed to make much impression in either race and it was a similar story with those sent to contest the Classic trials at Lingfield on Saturday, however it was a far better time for Godolphin.
Sobetsu, trained by Charlie Appleby, won the Prix Saint-Alary at Deauville although her participation in the Investec Oaks at Epsom may rest on whether the ground is soft enough. That is unlikely to be a problem for Best Solution, from the Saeed bin Suroor stable, who gave Godolphin a live Investec Derby contender after he ran out a good winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial. "We found today that he can handle any ground. He is improving all the time,” Bin Suroor said.
Godolphin could have up to five runners for the Betfred Dante Stakes at York on Thursday, all from different trainers, taking on the favourite, Cracksman. But the plunge horse in both the Dante and Derby betting is Crystal Ocean, who was being backed with a number of bookmakers yesterday.
Crystal Ocean is trained by Sir Michael Stoute and finished second at Newbury on his sole start as a two-year-old and then won on his reappearance at Nottingham last month.
O’Brien may have not fared well on his travels but Acapulco made a successful debut for him in the Sole Power Sprint Stakes at the Curragh.
The filly was a brilliant juvenile when trained in America by Wesley Ward, winning the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot in 2015, but has been switched to O'Brien and is in-foal to Galileo.
Dermot Weld was among the pioneers of racing horses abroad and Zhukova provided another Grade One victory in America for him in the Man O'War Stakes at Belmont Park.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here