Grade 1 Gold Class Stakes – A Preview
Sunday’s feature race at Berkshire, England will showcase some of the heaviest hitters in the “who’ll be standing at the end” portion of the Long Turf Division for older horses in a big-money 2-miler, the Grade 1 Gold Class Stakes.
Should be an excellent race; let’s open the ol’ fishwrap and check out the pp’s…
From the rail goes CELEBRATING, a 5yo High Chaparral mare who just broke through and grabbed her first graded-stakes win last time out. From the barn of Fredje Racing Stables’ fyvie, she takes a pretty large leap in class here. She has shown a strong liking for extreme-distance racing, but will need a lifetime-best run to compete with these; she’s the longest price in the field at 15/1.
In the 2-hole is DEEP DESERT, an interesting son of Deep Impact who seems to just now be hitting his best stride at age 6. Trained by longdesert of the Davarto Racing Group, he’s won three times in 2013; two on dirt in allowances and one turf stakes. He goes off at 10/1 here and could be capable of strong contention in this tougher spot.
SWINLEY BOTTOM has been dominant in allowances, but the 4yo Halling colt had a rough go in his one stakes try, finishing a distant 3rd for alysalley of Atthewire Racing Stables. While this one is on an improving-form cycle, he’ll need a huge day to make much headway vs. these at 12/1.
EMPIRE PARK has spent most of his career in 9-to-12 furlong races and has only tried the 2-mile distance three times. However, the Walk In The Park product has a pair of wins and a 4th to show for it. From the barn of russrob3 of the Russrob2 stable group, he goes at 6/1 and appears to be sitting on a strong effort.
From the middle of the 9-horse field goes the 2/1 favorite, top-ranked MAGNIFORMA. This son of Galileo has yet to taste defeat in any race 14 furlongs or longer and has gotten on a roll again after a slight slide in form to end 2012. Trained by italst2 of the impressive Frankster training group, he’s the one to beat.
FOX OF WESTWOOD represents zwhisper of the Olwhisper stable group and goes off at 7/1. The 4yo Shamardal colt looks to be getting better each time out and it would be no surprise to see this one hit the podium. In any case, has plenty of early quicks and will help keep the pace honest.
PARALLEL LINE looks to regain the mojo he had going in the fall of 2012 when he took home three straight graded-stakes trophies to the headquarters of the Super1 Racing Stables. Trainer super28 has given his #4-ranked runner a couple extra weeks off in hope of recapturing top form. Goes off at 7/1 here.
DELTA CLAUSE has been chasing home some of the others in here lately, but is back for more. A son of Delta Blues, his deep-closer style might be just the right thing to have if the pace gets a little hot early on. Trained by cashkinggo of the smaller, newish Kinggocash stable group, he goes off the 2nd choice at 9/2.
The 4yo GUN TURRET tries the full 2-mile distance for the first time here. The Henrythenavigator colt, trained by kevoman7 of the powerful CoolK stable group, has a lot of questions to answer and goes off at 7/1. Not without a chance, but things will have to fall nicely in his favor.
Analysis:
Looking at the pp’s it seems the class edge clearly belongs to the favorite, but he has rarely won a race against high-level competition without getting a comfortable early lead. It also looks like he should have some company up front here… Interesting, to say the least.
I think I’ll go with DELTA CLAUSE to pull off a minor upset with a huge rush to the wire.
I’ll take MAGNIFORMA to hold on for 2nd over EMPIRE PARK.
Good luck at the races!