Blast From The Past: John of Gaunt Stakes

The John of Gaunt Stakes (now known as the Timeform Jury Stakes) is a long-standing prize that made the jump from listed to Group 3 status in 2008. It is the first group race over seven furlongs in the British calendar for older males (as well as females) – followed by the Lennox Stakes, Criterion Stakes, City of York Stakes, Hungerford Stakes, Park Stakes, Challenge Stakes, and Supreme Stakes later in the year – and also gives four-year-olds an opportunity to avoid the up-and-coming three-year-olds (this race is open to four-year-olds and upwards), so it is usually a well-attended contest.

The stand-out performance in the John of Gaunt this century from a ratings perspective came from Sir Michael Stoute’s Main Aim, who ran to a very smart Timeform rating of 123 when winning the 2009 renewal by two lengths from Beacon Lodge. This followed Main Aim’s seven-length romp in a handicap at Newbury on his reappearance that season. Main Aim was subsequently unable to make the breakthrough at Group 1 level, but his two-and-a-half length fourth to Paco Boy in the Queen Anne and his one-and-a-quarter length second to Fleeting Spirit (when hampered) in the July Cup on his next two starts were both solid top-level performances.

Main Aim’s form tailed off at the end of his productive 2009 season due to problems with ulcers, but he staged a revival when winning the John of Gaunt for the second successive year on his second start of 2010, becoming only the second horse to win the race twice (the other being James Fanshawe’s Warningford who won in 1999 and 2002). Main Aim was made to dig much deeper than the previous year, however, and put up a Timeform rating of 115 this time, closer to the average rating needed to win the race. Interestingly, Main Aim’s connections – Sir Michael Stoute, Juddmonte, and Ryan Moore – combine in this year’s race with Convey, who looked unlucky not to win a handicap at York last time when badly hampered.

Ryan Moore also rode the only other horse this century to put up a very smart performance in the John of Gaunt when Major Cadeaux won the 2008 renewal, beating subsequent Wokingham winner Big Timer carrying a 5 lb penalty for his win in the Sandown Mile. Similarly to Main Aim, however, Major Cadeaux could only manage to find the places at Group 1 level (third in both the Sussex and the Prix Jacques Le Marois), though he was narrowly denied in the Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster later that season by just half a length.