JOHNSTON TO EMERGE VICTORIOUS IN BATTLE OF THE ARTISTS:
One of the most interesting races on Newbury’s card is the Shadwell "Standing For Success" Handicap at 4.55pm. Amongst the contenders are two lightly raced horses with bags of potential. Emerging Artist, trained by Mark Johnston, is the first of these to consider and this beautifully bred son of Dubai Destination appears to have an excellent chance of visiting the winner’s enclosure. The four-year-old made his first racecourse appearance only last month when contesting an average looking maiden at Haydock. It was a pleasing enough debut, staying on well in the closing stages to finish fourth to Very Good Day.
With that experience behind him, he managed to step up considerably on that effort in a similar event at Chepstow. He made all the running that day and stayed on in grand fashion to beat Never Can Tell by two lengths. In order to discover just how good the horse was, connections put him into a decent handicap at York for his final start, where he ran well for a long way, before succumbing to the classy La De Two. Although he finished five lengths off the winner, the word at Godolphin is that La De Two is a Group Class performer, and therefore the form is certainly useful.
Having only raced three times, further improvement seems assured and this race represents a drop in class. The stable are in top form at present and have recorded 19 wins in the past fortnight, and he drops down to ten furlongs, which on breeding should be ideal. The yard also won this race two seasons ago with a similar type in Hunting Country so he looks to have many positives and seems sure to take the world of beating here.
His market rival and probably biggest threat here is Con Artist, trained by Saeed Bin Suroor and ridden by Ted Durcan. A lightly raced three-year-old by Invincible Spirit, he showed reasonable form in his two starts as a juvenile, finishing third to Judiciary on his debut in a Southwell maiden and getting off the mark on his next outing in a similar race at Lingfield. Put away for the rest of the season, he made his reappearance only a fortnight ago when showing a marked improvement in form, making all the running to land a decent handicap at Windsor. He is likely to have benefited considerably for that run and looks sure to be thereabouts at the finish.
As both of the leading contenders like to make the running, the two of them may go off too quick and set the race up for a hold up type. If this happens then the one most likely to benefit is the Luca Cumani trained Major Phil. This four-year-old colt by Captain Rio has been in excellent form this term, making the frame on all four starts. Having began his season with a third placed finish behind Elusive Flame at Southwell, and filling the runner-up spot behind Tagseed at Newcastle, he gained a deserved success at Doncaster in June. Settled in behind the pace, he showed a terrific turn of foot to lead well inside the final furlong, beating Mac’s Power by three parts of a length.
Although that was a good effort, a better performance came on his final outing when finishing second to Camerooney in a very good handicap at Carlisle. Denied a clear passage, he would surely have finished closer with a trouble free run and the form of that race has since received a huge boost as the winner went on to win an even stronger contest at Newcastle. He looks to be a major player here and looks sure to run a big race.
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