Spanish Moon can rise in Princess Of Wales’s Stakes
The fortunes of Khalid Abdullah and Sir Michael Stoute have rarely been more propitious as they head the championships for owners and trainers respectively in this country.
However, one horse who has not been able to help the cause, on these shores at least, is Spanish Moon. After becoming too fractious to enter the starting at last year’s Guineas meeting on the Rowley Mile course at Newmarket he was banned from racing in Britain for six months.
Since then he has plied a highly lucrative trade on the international circuit but now returns for the second day of the July meeting at Newmarket in the Group Two Princess Of Wales’s sportingbet.com Stakes.
In his last five runs Spanish Moon has won the Group One Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, and the Group Two Prix Foy at Longchamp and then finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, second in Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin and third in the Dubai Sheema Classic.
Spanish Moon goes well fresh so fitness should not be a concern. The main danger is likely to be Holberg, who won the Queen’s Vase last year for Mark Johnston, and won on his first run for Godolphin at Goodwood last month. Holberg looks an interesting prospect but would need to improve again if Spanish Moon runs up to his best form.
Approve showed his best form when he won the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot last month but must now carry a 3lb penalty in the Group Two TNT July Stakes. That makes his task all the harder and he may well struggle to make that concession to Elzaam.
The form of Elzaam’s maiden win at York in May is working out well enough, with the second and third both winning subsequently, and he lost no cast in defeat when beaten a nose by Strong Suit in the Coventry Stakes at the royal meeting.
He may have failed to stay two miles in the Queen’s Vase three weeks ago, in which he finished fourth, but Corsica should be suited by the 13 furlongs of the Group Three Bahrain Trophy. His pedigree did not guarantee that he would stay two miles and Corsica just could not see it out as well as the front three. But it was a promising effort nonetheless and this could prove whether he can make up into a St Leger contender.
In sportingbet.com Handicap, Caldercruix has been progressing with each run this season and his second place to Monterosso, when Caldercruix was receiving 5lbs, looks far better formed viewed through the prism of Monterosso’s subsequent victory in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and fourth place in the Irish Derby.
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