Genki at the double for Stewards’ Cup
Over the years the bluesq.com Stewards’ Cup has had more plots that the grave yard and an Agatha Christie thriller combined.
And this year’s finale to the Glorious Goodwood meeting looks just as fiendish a puzzle to solve as ever. However, Roger Charlton, with three wins in the race Harmonic Way 1999, Patavellian 2003, and Genki last year – has become a trainer to follow and Genki can follow up his victory of 12 months ago.
Sprint handicaps can produce varying results but Genki is about as reliable performer you could ask for.
Since beating Evens And Odds by a length last year he has run creditably in a series of the top races and never been beaten by more than six lengths in any of them. Having put in his usual solid shift in the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot, Genki (pictured left) won a conditions’ race at Haydock with a fair bit more in hand than the winning margin of a neck suggests.
His draw of 25 gives his rider, Steve Drowne, the option of the far rail or a switch to the mid-track which may have the fastest ground. And the form of the Charlton stable gives plenty of ground for optimism as well. His runners have a 32% strike-rate since the beginning of June.
The Group One Blue Square Nassau Stakes has attracted a pair of high-class runners from France in Stacelita and Rosanara but they may both have to yield to Henry Cecil’s Midday, who also won this race a year ago.
Rosanara has run well in three starts this season but has yet to show that she has quite hit the peak of her form from last season while Stacelita seems to reserve her best for when there is more cut in the ground than she is likely to find here.
Cecil did admit to some slight ground concerns over Midday but she won on firmer ground than this in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, at Santa Anita last November, and put up a good display when failing by only a one-and-a-quarter lengths to concede 5lbs to Sariska in the Group Two Middleton Stakes at York in May.
Mark Johnston may not run Sea Lord in the Listed bluesq.com Thoroughbred Stakes, after his victory in the totesport Mile, but this rapidly improving three-year-old looks well capable of making what might not even been much of a step up in class after his recent performances in handicaps.
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