Elusive Pimpernel times 2000 Guineas challenge well
A glowing compliment or a serious threat? The supporters of St Nichols Abbey’s claims to winning the stanjames.com 2000 Guineas may make either deduction depending from which end of the prism they view Elusive Pimpernel’s victory in the Group Three Racing Post breezeupbonus.com Craven Stakes at Newmarket yesterday.
Elusive Pimpernel seemed to have been put in his place when St Nicholas Abbey beat him in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster last October but his victory yesterday did, at the very least, appear a realistic form of opposition for next month’s colts’ Classic.
Morana and Critical Moment set a fair pace from the stalls but the critical moment for Elusive Pimpernel’s backers appeared to come a little after half-way. Three furlongs out Ryan Moore, who was taking over the ride from the suspended Eddie Ahern, showed the first signs of unease. Moore was asking questions and a Classic bubble looked ready to burst in the classic manner of the promising two-year-old who fails to deliver the following spring.
It may not have been a first-class delivery – that will have to come in the Guineas – but it was a lot more timely than anything that the Royal Mail is likely to achieve these days. It took Elusive Pimpernel the best part of a furlong to fully hit his stride but, in the final furlong-and-a-half, he bounded clear with some degree of style to beat Dancing David – who had been behind him in the Racing Post Trophy – by four lengths, with Critical Moment staying on for third.
A 2000 Guineas winner is one of the few omissions from John Dunlop’s CV but the trainer admitted to moments of unease as the race unfolded. “Two out it suddenly didn’t look so good for a moment,” he said. “But then he came good and he quickened up so well to go past them. He’s a pretty good horse – whether he’s good enough for the big one we’ll see.
“One’s always apprehensive about these things. When you’re anticipating, and hoping and praying for things – and they don’t always come off. They most often don’t, so it’s always very much of a relief and a pleasure when they do come off.”
The performance paid an obvious compliment to St Nicholas Abbey but, despite the fact that Elusive Pimpernel has three-and-three-quarter lengths to make up on St Nicholas Abbey from that run in the Racing Post Trophy, the Guineas is the next race on the agenda. “We have a pretty obvious route to go and we can’t do anything else but that,” Dunlop said. “And we’ll see if he’s good enough. But that was a very pleasing seasonal debut as they say.”
Those thoughts were echoed by Moore, who said: “He impressed me, he travelled very well and once I had him out in the clear he quickened up good. He just stayed on and was having a little idle in front. Looking at his races I thought he sees out the trip well so I just made use of his stamina. He’ll be better in a strong-run mile.”
The Craven was itself run in a time that was 2.51secs quicker than the NGK Spark Plugs Coachmakers Wood Ditton Stakes, run over the same course and distance earlier in the afternoon. That equates to about nine lengths which, while an impressive performance, does raise the caveat over whether Elusive Pimpernel may have had too hard a race with the 2000 Guineas just 16 days away. However, it did prove that the Elusive Pimpernel has wintered well and will handle fast ground, both of which boxes St Nicholas Abbey has yet to tick - publically at least.
The Wood Ditton was a winner for Henry Cecil with Diescentric but, while this race has often been the starting point for some useful types, the trainer was not getting too carried away. “There were a lot of backward horses and one or two looked as though they needed a race,” he commented. “He did it nicely but what did he beat? It’s difficult to say – you’d like to think so but you don’t know. He’s not blowing very much. I think he might get a little bit further and, hopefully, he might win somewhere else again. I don’t want to fly too high.”
On a day when the more senior members of the training profession were offering potent reminders of their enduring worth, Michael Jarvis won the Weatherbys Bloodstock Racecard Earl of Sefton Stakes with Sri Putra and Barry Hills – who appeared to be making a slower start to the season than usual – bagged his second major prize of the Craven meeting when Equiano won the Connaught Access Flooring Abernant Stakes.
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