Bouguereau runs in the 4.40 at Goodwood, and anything other than a win will be a disappointment. His came fourth last time in the Criterium du Fonds, a listed race at Deaville which is a group race in all but name. The prize money for this race is greater than that for the Flying Childers yesterday which is a group 2 – the winner of the Criterium du Fonds is invariably established later as top class (the exception here is Berkhamsted who won this in 2004 – I owned him for a while running in low grade races with no luck). Our principal opponent is Strategic Mover from the powerful Cole yard. He is rumoured to be decent – he also has a fourth in a listed race to his name. Bouguereau will race up with the pace – in all probability he’ll try to make all. He’s a classy animal and I’m confident.
Pete also runs Aeroplane at Goodwood (they tell me it’s a flying machine…) – Al Qasi drops out of the sprint at Donny as he doesn’t like it too firm. Aeroplane won first time up last season and has been working well on the gallops – this is clearly no secret and his price is around 5/2 instead of the suggested 11/2 in the early tissues. I’m going to Goodwood and I’ll be backing him but it’s certainly not the value bet I thought it would be yesterday.
The Champagne Stakes at Donny was a key race last year and could be a decent heat again. River Proud ran second behind Winker last time, and obviously I’d like him to frank the form. Winker ran a remarkable race that day. Giving three pounds to the field he looked across from his stall and winked at the camera, giving the field a further 4 length start. He reeled River Proud in in time for Jimmy Fortune to stand up and stretch his back in the saddle as he passed the post. Michael Spencer has been making bullish noises about RP since then, which had me thinking about a decent bet.
Luck Money was a smart winner for the Cole team in the Goffs Million yesterday – if River Proud can replicate that run then he should win, but Luck Money may be a marginally better horse at this stage. Tajdeef is rumoured to be the best 2yo that Barry Hills has, and Atlantic Sport the best that Channon has. It’s a hot race. I’ll stick with River Proud but it won’t be a max bet.
Prince Ary ran a decent race in third yesterday.