GROUND IMPROVING FOR THE QUEST

GROUND IMPROVING FOR THE QUEST

Following Richard Fahey last Saturday meant a profit – it often will – when Gabrial won at Windsor. Whatever you do, do not give up on stable-companion Goerge Bowen, who may not have liked the Tapeta surface at Newcastle and still looks the type for the consolation Stewards’ Cup race at Glorious Goodwood, with maybe the race for grey horses, which he won last year, at Newmarket before then.
The ground is drying out at Sandown (at long last) and it should help Roger Charlton’s QUEST FOR MORE in the Marathon on Saturday. An admirably consistent type, he ran well in the Melbourne Cup after defying a steep hike in the handicap in the Northumberland Plate and it’s significant that the trainer has turned to Colm O’Donoghue, over to ride for Aidan O’Brien in the Coral-Eclipse.

I have no strong thoughts about the big race, or indeed the Coral Charge, but there is also an interesting card at Haydock, where German challenger NIGHTFLOWER may go close in the Lancashire Oaks. Purely on her Prix de Diane running last summer she is not quite good enough but she managed to win at Group 1 level at Cologne later on, her Japan Cup effort was excellent and I like the booking of Freddie Tylicki here.

I think I’d leave Leicester and Nottingham alone, with the sun turning heavy ground quite tacky, but Fahey’s lightly-raced ONE BOY has an each-way chance in the sprint handicap at Beverley, where quite a few familiar old faces are running for more money than usual and there are no other potential improvers in the field.