Ratings Update: Star not for catching

Saturday’s Irish Oaks featured the three fillies who had filled the frame behind Anapurna in the Oaks at Epsom but instead it was the Ribblesdale Stakes which proved the key piece of form. As at Royal Ascot last month, Anapurna’s stablemate Star Catcher (115 from 109) proved too good for Fleeting (110 from 114), both fillies improving their ratings in finishing clear of the remainder. Fleeting finished closer to the winner this time, though the supplemented Star Catcher benefited from an excellent ride from the front by Frankie Dettori and couldn’t be caught. Where John Gosden sends the winner next will depend on plans for the stable’s other top middle-distance fillies, his yard particularly strong in that department this season.

Star Catcher says catch me if you can

...and they can't!

She wins the Kerrygold Irish Oaks

It's another Classic for @FrankieDettori for the same connections as 2015 hero Golden Horn pic.twitter.com/LrUq4zgEV1

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) 20 July 2019

The best performance at the Curragh on Saturday, however, came from Romanised (120 from 119) who got his head in front for the first time since winning last year’s Irish 2000 Guineas when showing a sparkling turn of foot to beat some smart rivals in the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes over seven furlongs. His effort was backed up by the clock in a race run at a strong gallop and he could go for the Prix Jacques le Marois again next in a bid to better his fifth place last year.

Romanised’s sire Holy Roman Emperor was also responsible for the winner of the card’s other pattern race, the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes for two-year-olds. Not much more than a length covered the first five home, with Roman Turbo (89p from 98p) coming out on top, the Mick Halford-trained colt taking his record to two from two after a debut success in a maiden last month, and he’s bred to stay at least seven furlongs this year.

Perhaps the most exciting winner of the weekend at the Curragh came on Sunday in the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes which went to the four-year-old filly Soffia, her trainer Eddie Lynam no stranger to handling top sprinters. Completing her hat-trick here, she stormed clear off a strong pace to beat the smart British gelding El Astronaute (118) by three and a half lengths and looks well up to taking on Group 1 company now, the Flying Five back at the Curragh, where she is now unbeaten in four starts, a likely target.

Soffia wins the Friarstown Stud Sapphire Stakes at Curragh pic.twitter.com/fSaZ2CUPRi

— Horse Racing Ireland (@GoRacing) 21 July 2019

Newbury’s Saturday fixture featured the very valuable Weatherbys Super Sprint for two-year-olds but the headline ratings come from several smart winners elsewhere on the card. Unexposed three-year-olds Fox Chairman (119p from 117p) and Pondus (117p from 108p) proved too good for older rivals in the listed Steventon Stakes over a mile and a quarter and both still have scope for better, in the runner-up’s case when he goes back over further.

Withhold (120 from 116) doesn’t make it to the track very often, but he tends to make it count in valuable staying handicaps when he does, and his victory under 9-10 in the Marsh Cup added to earlier career wins in the Cesarewitch and Northumberland Plate. He’d had a breathing operation since his last run when bleeding in Australia last year, but returned better than ever here, making most of the running and finding plenty when challenged, and he looks well up to tackling pattern races now.

A triumphant return to action for Withhold as he takes the Marsh Cup Handicap at @NewburyRacing

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The Tin Man (120 from 122) was hot favourite to win the Hackwood Stakes for the second time in his career but disappointed in a race won by the German-trained 33/1-shot Waldpfad (121 from 113). Although dismissed by the market, Waldpfad had won a similar event at Hamburg earlier in the month in his first season for a new stable that’s found the key to him by dropping him in trip, and his entry in Haydock’s Sprint Cup doesn’t look so ambitious now.

The other performance of note at Newbury came right at the end of the card in a seven-furlong handicap where the eight runners were covered by a weight range of just 4 lb. Withhold’s trainer Roger Charlton struck again here with Makzeem (114 from 109) who ran out a four-length winner and will make plenty of appeal if turned out under a penalty in next Saturday’s International Handicap at Ascot.

As for the Super Sprint, it went to one of the cheapest purchases in the line-up (and therefore one of the bottom weights) in Bettys Hope (90 from 78) who completed a hat-trick for Rod Millman. Richard Fahey trained the next three home, runner-up Show Me Show Me (96 from 91) coming out best at the weights, while hot favourite Ventura Rebel (108) in fourth looks in need of a step up to six furlongs now.

Elsewhere, there were smart performances in handicaps from the progressive Jedd O’Keeffe sprinter Air Raid (112 from 104), whose win in a soft-ground Scottish Stewards’ Cup at Hamilton on Friday evening was his third course-and-distance win of the year, and from French import Indeed (116 from 111) who is thriving for Dominic Ffrench Davis this season and carried 10-0 to victory in a mile contest at Newmarket.

Finally, there’s no stopping Frankie Dettori at the moment, and after Star Catcher on Saturday, he also won Sunday’s big race in France when Norfolk Stakes winner A’ali (111p from 109p) followed up his Royal Ascot win in the Prix Robert Papin at Deauville. One of four British-trained colts in the field, he was produced from well off the pace to win comfortably and is most likely to return to Deauville next month for the Prix Morny according to his trainer Simon Crisford.

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A'ALI continues to impress as he lands the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin for Simon Crisford and Frankie Dettori!pic.twitter.com/ipUphcPQCk

— Champions Series (@ChampionsSeries) 21 July 2019