It’s the second day of two at Sandown and the feature on Saturday is the Eclipse, which brings together the cream of the three-year-old crop to face their older rivals.
The famous race carries Group 1 status and is one of the established midsummer features of British racing that has been won by legends like Halling, Hawk Wing, Sea The Stars and many others.
Clive Gildon provides his analysis on the big race as well as one other selection at Sandown’s marquee Flat meeting, where they race live on ITV from 1.15-3.35, with the Eclipse off at 3.35.
3.35 – Eclipse Stakes (1m2f)
The big one and it’s difficult to oppose impressive Derby winner City Of Troy, who was an outstanding juvenile and bounced back from a below-par run at Newmarket to win last time.
He was well held when odds-on for the 2,000 Guineas, but something must have been amiss as he was right back to his best when running away with the Epsom showpiece only last month.
City Of Troy travelled like a dream and put the race to bed with a smart turn of foot, showing all of the speed that we saw last season, and suggesting this drop back to 1m2f might prove ideal.
That is the best piece of form on offer in this race and a reproduction will almost certainly be good enough for the selection to add another Group 1 to his record. The only worry is that he was so bad at Newmarket on his reappearance that maybe he has a habit of throwing in the odd bad run.
Let’s hope that’s not the case because City Of Troy is a special horse to watch when he is on song.
However, the nagging doubt does make it worth having a bet on something at a bigger price and the one who takes the eye is the Brian Meehan-trained Royal Ascot winner Jayarebe.
Meehan won this race in 2006 with David Junior, who had also competed at Royal Ascot previously, and Jayarebe has now twice looked like he can be competitive at the top level in three runs this year.
He was impressive when landing the Feilden Stakes at Newmarket on his reappearance and put a below-par run at Chester behind him when defeating the highly regarded King’s Gambit at Royal Ascot last time. The runner-up looked unlucky, but Jayarebe ran on resolutely under pressure.
That race was run in a good time and, if there is to be a surprise, it might come from Jayarebe.
SELECTION: CITY OF TROY
NEXT BEST: JAYAREBE
BET ON THE ECLIPSE STAKES
1.50 - Charge (Group 3, 5f)
Sometimes handicap sprinters make so much progress, so quickly, that they can catapult themselves into Group races and Desperate Hero definitely comes into that category. He can land a hat-trick.
The Jack Channon-trained four-year-old had subsequent Dash winner Dream Composer and dual subsequent scorer Clarendon House in behind when winning at Goodwood in May and he took another huge step forward when running away with a 5f handicap at Hamilton last month.
Desperate Hero put four and a half lengths on a competitive 15-runner field to win as he liked and that marked him down as a rapidly improving sprinter. There should be plenty more to come.
SELECTION: DESPERATE HERO
