www.silverguide.site –

INDALO'S LATE THRUST HITS THE BOOKIES

SANDOWN 2.25 RESULT: 1. INDALO 9-4 fav, 2. Hard Endeavour, 3. Ebt’s Guard.

Wow, picked the first two winners and they were the nap and next best … it’s only fair to point out that this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, normal service.

Off and running in the 2.25 at Sandown … Tribal Chief fell out of the stalls and appears to have lost all chance … Balmacara leads from Liberty Lane, Indalo is mid-division … turning in … three out … still Balmacara, Indalo launches a challenge on the outside … he’s getting up …. INDALO wins!

We’re on to the second race already, and they’re starting to load for the big handicap. Indalo is favourite at 5-2, with Tribal Chief at 4-1 and Classic at 13-2. Indalo is my nap pick for the day, though he is a little shorter than expected in the betting.

Eclipse contender: Saddadd

Age: 4. Career: 8 races, 4 wins. Group One wins: 0.

Trainer: Roger Varian. Timeform rating: 121.

Another late-developer and one with a course-and-distance win to his name, in the Gordon Richards Stakes here in April.

Gordon Richards Stakes

Old-timers like me can remember the brilliant Mtoto turning up at Sandown in July 1987 with a very similar profile and wearing the same yellow and black colours of Sheikh Ahmed al-Maktoum, and beating that year’s Derby winner, Reference Point, in one of the great Eclipses.

Saddadd has made somewhat steadier progress through the ranks, including wins in valuable handicaps at Newbury and over today’s course and distance last year, but looked very much at home in Group One company when making his debut at the highest level – behind another runner in the same colours, Almaqam – in the Tattersalls Gold Cup in May.

Eclipse contender: Gethin

Age: 4. Career: 6 races, 3 wins. Group One wins: 0.

Trainer: Owen Burrows. Timeform rating: 120p.

Owen Burrows’s four-year-old makes his Group One debut in today’s feature but fully deserves his chance at the highest level after a strong run into a close second behind Ombudsman – a Group One winner at Royal Ascot next time out – here in May.

Brigadier Gerard

That race has been a stepping-stone to Eclipse success for plenty of late-maturing four-year-olds in the past, and Burrows has a fine track record for giving such horses – including the Group One winners Hukum and Anmaat – the time they need. He has a few pounds to find with Constitution River on the ratings and has had one more start, but another big step forward is anticipated this afternoon.

The stands are packed here at Sandown for the biggest day of the track’s Flat season and there was a huge roar as Rumstar began his run towards the lead and it quickly became apparent that he was going to get there in time. A repeat of his win 12 months ago, while Asfoora never got involved after her slow start. These are the final weeks of her outstanding career before she retires to stud and it will be interesting to hear whether her connections will pursue their plan to run in the Nunthorpe at York next month, possibly with a trip to Goodwood in between.

Rumstar at the double

SANDOWN 1.50 RESULT: 1. RUMSTAR 100-30, 2. Luna A Inbhir Nis, 3. Partisan Hero.

Off and running in the 1.50 at Sandown … Asfoora a bit slow to stride and held up at the rear … Leovanni and Luna A Inbhir Nis dispute the lead … Luna A Inbhir Nis goes on but here comes Rumstar down the outside … he’s gaining stride by stride … and gets there with a few strides to spare!

It is approaching post time here for the opening race. Asfoora is the 9-4 favourite, with Rumstar at 3-1 and Shagraan at 4-1. I fancy Rumstar for a repeat of his win 12 months ago, but this is a going to be a furious and hard-fought sprint down the middle of the track.

Away from the live action for a moment, Michael Bell has paid tribute to his 2005 Derby winner, Motivator, after his death at the age of 24.

Motivator was not only a Derby winner, but an unbeaten Derby winner following his easy success at Epsom, with Johnny Murtagh in the saddle, though he failed to add to his tally in three subsequent starts.

He was also owned by a syndicate – the Royal Ascot Racing Club – and had a long career at stud, including spells at the National Stud, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Stud at Sandringham and later in France.

“I was very lucky to have him as part of my life and he obviously gave us many special days,” Bell said, “but one in particular.

“He was a very, very high-class horse and I think on Derby day he would have won a lot of Derbys. He was absolutely on his game that day and was very impressive – it would have taken a good Derby winner to beat him, I think.”

Eclipse contender: Constitution River

Age: 3. Career: 5 races, 4 wins. Group One wins: 1.

Trainer: Aidan O’Brien. Timeform rating: 124p.

The favourite for today’s big race has been beaten just once, on his first trip to the track, when he was short-headed in a hot maiden at Newmarket’s July meeting a year ago. He has since reeled off four wins, including a statement success in the Dee Stakes at Chester on his three-year-old debut in May where he routed his field by seven lengths. He then overcame the worst of the draw to land the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) at Chantilly, with Hawk Mountain three-quarters of a length away in second, while the Chester form – including a champion’s timefigure - was franked when the runner-up, Generic, won a Group Three at Royal Ascot last month. His form is all but flawless to date and after just five starts, he has room for further improvement too.

Preamble

Good afternoon from Sandown Park on the south-western fringe of London, where the Eclipse Stakes, the first Group One clash of the generations, is due off at 3.35.

I’ve often heard it said – generally by marketing folk with a chunky contract to “reimagine” the sport – that the Flat racing season lacks “narrative”. I beg to differ. The first couple of months are when we sift the wheat from the chaff in the Classic generation, Royal Ascot is a sumptuous chapter all to itself, and then we turn the page again, with the Eclipse marking the point when we start to compare the generations.

There are years, admittedly, when the narrative is more compelling than others, and races like the Eclipse and the King George – at Ascot later this month – lose much of their lustre without a decent three-year-old in the field.

But that has not been an issue for the Eclipse in recent years, with a succession of top-class three-year-olds – from the Aidan O’Brien yard, for the most part – landing the spoils, and another potential leader of the Classic generation, Constitution River, will set off as the hot favourite this afternoon.

The four-year-old generation could well have its say too, though, as Saddadd and Gethin are both classy, improving colts, while another O’Brien-trained three-year-old, Hawk Mountain, was within a length of Constitution River in the French Derby last time and is also in there with a shout.

The big-race run-up includes a Group Three sprint at 1.50 to open the card, with the ever-popular Australian-trained mare, Asfoora, in the line-up against last year’s winner, Rumstar, a hyper-competitive one-mile handicap at 2.20 and, over at Newmarket, an unexpected diversion of the Lancashire Oaks – another race that pits three-year-olds against older horses – from its traditional home at Haydock, where the track’s racing surface is undergoing major repairs.

Tips for the ITV Racing card are here, pen-pics and video form for the big-race contenders will be along presently, and the blog will be live until the Eclipse winner is back in its stable and there hopefully some indication of where the next step in their story will take them.