Canford Cliffs ‘looks a million dollars’
The markets may argue but Richard Hannon believes that he has Canford Cliffs at his best before he runs in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
Canford Cliffs was put through his final workout before he attempts to win a fourth Group One race of the season and the trainer was happy with the way that the colt dispatched his galloping companion, Angel Pursuit.
Makfi, the French-trained colt who beat Canford Cliffs when the pair met in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in May, has come in for support in the last 24 hours with the view being taken that the likelihood of softer ground will be to his advantage.
Hannon has gone on record as saying that Canford Cliffs is the best horse that he has trained, after a summer spree when the colt won the Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace and Sussex Stakes to lay claim to the title of champion miler.
Speaking on his website Hannon said: "You could not be anything else but happy with that. Angel's Pursuit is a decent sprinter, who was second in last year's Mill Reef Stakes and has won a Listed race this season, so nobody could say that this was a Jim'll Fixit Gallop.”
“Obviously, the big race is still three days away and horses can change quickly, but we will have him scoped and if his reading is good I see no reason why he should not be very hard to beat at Ascot.
“A drop of rain would not bother us, though I'd rather we did not get too much as that would favour Makfi, but there are no easy Group One races and we know that Canford Cliffs will have to be bang on song to see off what looks very hot competition.
“However, I am just concentrating on my horse, and I have seen Canford Cliffs improve so much both physically and mentally since Royal Ascot. He was difficult to settle in the spring, but he now relaxes so well and looks a million dollars. Tony Gorman, my head lad, has described him as ‘a beast’, and he is probably right.”
Godolphin could still be doubly represented in the race, with Rio de la Plata and Poet’s Voice still entered, but their nets are spread wide and Holberg will be on the plane for the Emirates Melbourne Cup in November after a battling victory in the Listed Mouton Cadet Classic Foundation Stakes at Goodwood.
Frankie Dettori is a master of front-running tactics and he did his best to control the race from the front, although Bullet Train and Hot Prospect tried to harry the leader until Dettori started to turn the s***w from the home turn. But, when Chris Catlin produced Pink Symphony to challenge in the penultimate furlong it was down to a battle of wills, which Holberg won by a short-head, with Heliodor in third.
Ten furlongs was at the very bottom of Holberg’s stamina range and his trainer, Saeed bin Suroor, thinks he will be well suited to the two-mile hurly burly of the Melbourne Cup where he will be joined by stable companion Campanologist and Eastern Aria, who has transferred to the ownership of Godolphin but remains under the care of Mark Johnston. Frankie Dettori will be riding Holberg (53.5kg) while Craig Williams has been booked to partner Eastern Aria (51.5kg). Godolphin has not yet made any jockey plans for Campanologist (56kg).
Eastern Aria will be based with the Godolphin horses throughout their Melbourne Cup preparation at Godolphin’s private quarantine centre in Newmarket. The trio will have two weeks in pre-export quarantine before setting out for Australia on October 10th, but one horse who will not be making the trip is Rite of Passage.
Dermot Weld, the only European trainer to have won the Melbourne Cup, could still run Profound Beauty but will not make a decision for a fortnight.
Godolphin’s annual draft of new talent will doubtless include many of the horses, like Eastern Aria, trained by Johnston for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum, the son of Goldophin’s founder Sheikh Mohammed, whose Dordogne looked a promising sort when he won the RH Hall EBF Maiden Stakes.
The pursuit of potential winners is unlikely to ever reach Redcar claimers but the evergreen Fremen, still going strong at 10, won his eighth race of the season for David Nicholls.
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