Flat Season Antepost Selections - Part 2
Two More Antepost Selections For This Year's English 2,000 & 1,000 Guineas
Yesterday, I posted my current antepost selections for the upcoming flat season. All of which would have been on my ‘X’ profile in previous months. With this weeks weekly rewards from SkyBet, I have two more selections to put up.
My first of the two comes in the English 2,000 Guineas, where I already have a good amount of early selections, but I feel this one could, well, go under the radar.
There aren't many years where you can say Clive Cox goes into the season with a classic hope, but this year may be slightly different. Last year, Ghostwriter made a winning debut at Newmarket’s July course in early August in the hands of Richard Kingscote. A month later, he went to Ascot and won rather nicely under a penalty, ahead of Dark Tornado - a horse that looked promising.
Cox had obviously seen enough at home to enter the Invincible Spirit colt in the Royal Lodge at Newmarket. A race that looked to have a lot of depth on paper.
We had the likes of Al Musmak, who was second in what looked like the hottest two-year-old race of the entire year, the Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot. Aiden O’Brien's Capulet, who caught the eye when finishing second to Diego Velazquez at Leopardstown. Ralph Beckett's, Macduff. A ready winner on debut, before finishing second to Al Musmak in a Listed contest on just his second start. Godolphin & Charlie Appleby had the unbeaten Aablan.
Richard Kingscote was back in the saddle, and he travelled all over the field, and with two furlongs to run, he was the last one sat on the bridle before pushing him out into the dip, and extending out of it. His stamina kicked in out of the dip, and he looked a comfortable winner in the end.
The form that ties in with Al Musmak could be enough to see him in good stead, especially with improvement from two to three expected.
Normally, Clive Cox is associated with having success with sprinters in recent times, but you can imagine he and connections will be coming into the season with a lot of hope. You'd think he'll be more of a middle distance type, but the early season classic will surely be their first target of the year, and they go there with live chance before going on to other things.
My second selection comes in the Fillies 1,000 Guineas, and it's unusual we don't normally see Charlie Appleby and Godolphin head into a season without some sort of classic contender, but last year there wasn't too much that caught the eye, especially with their fillies.
Dance Sequence was probably the only one to put herself up for contention for the 1,000 Guineas this year, but out of all the fillies we saw last year, she wouldn't be the best we've seen. She did look good in the Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket, and the step up in trip with certainly help her chances.
However, a certain Cinderella's Dream really caught the eye when winning the Jumeirah Fillies Classic in Meydan at the start of February. This Shamaradal filly has looked to have improved a great deal from her two starts last year, at Lingfield and Thirsk. I was a big believer that Cinderella's Dream was the wrong favourite at Meydan, but I was proved wrong when she got the better of her stablemate, Beautiful Love.
Last year, Mawj won the same race, before going on to win the Jumeirah Fillies Guineas, and later, the English 1,000 Guineas. So, you can see the similarities between the two. She is obviously a filly that has probably taken a bit of time to come to hand, despite winning her first two starts on home soil. Neither of those races would be considered good enough to be targeting a classic, but if she can continue on what looks an upwards curve, then she could end up being the stables number one for next year's classic, and her current price may be to good a price to ignore. Especially if she goes on to win the Jumeirah Fillies Guineas in convincing style.
All of a sudden Charlie Appleby and Godolphin have a handful of potential stars on there hand after a poor campaign last year by their standards.
English 2,000 Guineas
Ghostwriter @ 16/1 Each Way, 3 Places
English 1,000 Guineas
Cinderella's Dream @ 33/1 Each Way, 3 Places