6:20 Bletchley Castle A tough puzzle to crack but this front runner can jump this field into the ground. Surprised he’s 9/2 to be honest.
I didn't see them in the paddock before the Coronation Cup but the general consensus seemed to be that Old Persian didn't look the part today. In an odd race, he seemed to run exactly as he did in the Leger. He held a good position and seemed to travel into the race well in the closing stages but he then went out like a light. Kew Gardens was off the pace but closed up menacingly. He looked likely to win but in the end Defoe stayed on slightly more stoutly. Lah Ti Dar never really travelled and the appalling record of female horses in the Coronation Cup continues. Old Persian never ran his race and it's not the first time he has done that. Connections supplemented him for the race but it backfired. In the Oaks I felt Anapurna might be the most assured stayer and that is the way it panned out. You can blame jockeys all you want but sometimes one horse just has more to give at the business end of a race. If any jockey had a bad day in the Oaks it was De Sousa. Often deemed a genius, he gave his filly a suicidal run from the front. It was almost as if he was freelancing as a pacemaker for Ballydoyle. Amanda Perrett waits a generation for something with a chance in a Classic and it's Donald Ducked after half a mile. Maqsad did not stay, while Mehdaayih was disappointing. Pink Dogwood gave it a good go and ran better than her comeback effort. It was a poor Oaks and had looked devoid of a star for a long while. Odds of 14/1 for Anapurna in the Arc De Triomphe are hilariously short and bookies are pulling punter's plungers.
Oaks winner Anapurna was certainly not all out to defy Pink Dogwood and if the two meet again at The Curragh, I would stick with Gosden’s filly. The run towards the winning line at Epsom is uphill and Pink Dogwood was just outstayed. Ballydoyle can certainly not complain about lack of pace in the race as they had enough runners that one of them could have gone to the front and made the pace stronger. As I had a financial interest in her, I was watching Maqsad in the race and she clearly did not stay. When push came to shove two furlongs out she emptied quickly and hung across the camber hampering a bunch of the also-rans. So I guess they will look to drop back to ten furlongs with her. At that point, it looked like Pink Dogwood was going to go on and win by a margin but Frankie had clearly been biding his time on Anapurna covered up on the inside and she collared the O’Brien filly in the last hundred yards. Whether this was a good renewal only time will tell. Other than the winner most of the first six or seven seemed to have been held up at the back, suggesting that the pace was not great and it turned into a two furlong sprint rather like a standard French race. I expect we will see some of these in the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot at which point we can gauge their merit when they take on the lightly-raced fillies that skipped Epsom.
