Twice Over could be enough for Henry Cecil in Eclipse
One of the more unusual statistics about the Coral-Eclipse Stakes is that Henry Cecil has not won this Group One race for over 30 years.
Cecil won the race for the third time with Gunner B in 1978, a year when he won one of his 10 trainers’ championships, and has had some near-misses since. The most painful was 1997 when Bosra Sham was a beaten odds-on favourite in a five-runner field. Kieren Fallon would have any number of entries for a video of My 10 greatest races but that will never be one of them.
There may have been a slight case of déjà vu at Royal Ascot last month when Twice Over finished second to Byword in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last month. There was no blame attached to Tom Queally but Twice Over had little luck in running and was around three lengths off the winner and simply got going too late after being switched into the clear with two furlongs to run.
He cut the winner’s lead down to just a half-length at the line and is the pick on BHA ratings from this field. Twice Over did run poorly in last year’s Eclipse but has not shown anything like that form since. His worst run was in the Dubai World Cup, where he was badly drawn, and even though he finished 10th was beaten just three-and-a-quarter lengths.
Mawatheeq, another six lengths in Prince Of Wales’s, was only a half-length second to Twice Over in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket in October. His trainer, Marcus Tregoning, had warned beforehand that the horse had suffered a setback with fetlock injury during the winter, but there has to be a question over whether he has come on from that race sufficiently in just 17 days. It would take a similar improvement in performance for Zacinto to give Sir Michael Stoute a sixth victory in the race.
Zacinto had trailed in last behind Paco Boy in the Lockinge Stakes but was a promising fourth to Goldikova in the Queen Anne Stakes at the royal meeting and could be an improver now that he is trying 10 furlongs for the first time.
Fillies and mares have a poor record in the Eclipse with only two – Pebbles (1985) and Kooyonga (1992) – winning since the race’s inception in 1886. Dar Re Mi is running for the first time since she won the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March, but her best form is at 12 furlongs.
Horse changing stables can sometimes be rejuvenated and appears to be the case with Group Therapy. Now with Jeremy Noseda, Group Therapy looks the big improver and worth the step up in class for the Group Three Coral Charge Stakes.
The step up in trip could well be the right move for Coasting in the Coral Challenge Handicap. This lightly-race five-year-old, who won on his return from a 1007 day absence at Newmarket in May, could be anything and did not have an easy run at Sandown three weeks ago and the move from seven furlongs to a mile could well suit him.
Barshiba is ideally suited by fast ground and 12 furlongs and she gets both in the Group Two bet365 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park. There are a few front runners in the race but this mare, who won this race last year, is likely to be still going when others have had enough.
The bet365 Old Newton Cup looks it usual conundrum but Hanoverian Baron, who only just made the cut at the bottom of handicap, could have enough in hand. Three wins in four starts since joining Tony Newcombe culminated with an impressive victory at York’s Dante meeting and he looks well able to defy a 5lb rise in the ratings.
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