Friday 23 October 2015 19:55, UK
Alex Hammond reflects upon an action-packed Champions Day and provides her top tips for the weekend ahead.
The fact I backed three winners! Joking aside, there were some top notch performances as you'd expect.
Muhaarar was really dominant in the Sprint and will be a decent addition to the Shadwell Stud stallion rota. It's always a shame when a smart three-year-old is packed off to stud, but I can understand entirely the thinking behind it because they are too valuable to race on. He lit up the sprint division in a way no horse has done for a very long time and you can only imagine how good he would have been at four.
I really fancied Simple Verse and she showed a great attitude to win the Fillies and Mares race. Unlike Muhaarar she will be kept in training and I think the plan is to stick to middle distances with the King George her mid-season target.
QEII winner Solow is a gelding, so no worries about the French-trained grey being sent off to stud. What a horse he is! Freddy Head must be dreaming of next season. He gradually wound things up to win a messy race for his ninth victory in a row and fifth consecutive Group One.
Dermot Weld and Ascot are almost like Frankie Dettori and Ascot. I didn't fancy Fascinating Rock in the Champion Stakes, but Weld had trained him to the minute for the most prestigious win of his career so far.
Finally, Eddie Greatrex did a professional job on the final winner on the card, Musaddas, for Godolphin. He is a young apprentice (only 16 years old) with a future and should be in demand next season as he still claims 5lb at the moment. It's well documented that Musaddas isn't an easy ride and he stayed cool on the gelding to coax the best out of him. He only had his first ride in February and has ridden winners every month since. He's based with Andrew Balding who has started the career of many a top rider, including William Buick, and this is a lad to keep on the right side of. Incidentally, his brother Tom is an amateur jockey with David Pipe and had his first ride in January, he's one to watch too!
I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting. There was a real buzz about the place with a decent crowd. Obviously there will have been racegoers there purely for the music afterwards, but why not? With the standard of racing that was on offer, hopefully they will be encouraged to come back.
Frankie Dettori is such a good ambassador for our sport and for him to get a winner on the day was perfect. I took along a friend who has only ever been to a point to point and she will definitely be coming back. It had the right balance of razzmatazz and quality sport and is a race meeting that should stand the test of time.
There is always opposition to change, but I think this is a day that works well and as much as I didn't like the 'new' Ascot when it was first redeveloped, it has grown on me now and I can see that the change was necessary in a modern world.
The race at Doncaster will be run on proper autumn soft ground as is often the case. Whilst at the time of writing the ground is good to soft, forecasters predict a few millimetres of rain on Saturday morning which would turn the ground soft. Only seven have been declared for the race and the men of the moment, John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, team up again with a short-priced favourite.
Foundation comes into the one mile contest unbeaten in three and already favourite for next year's Derby (14/1 with Sky Bet). However, Gosden has issued a warning that soft ground would put the colt's run in doubt. He has won on good to soft, but this is likely to be more of a slog than that.
He does show some knee action which is usually a sign that a horse enjoys ease in the ground, but I will of course bow to his trainer's superior knowledge of this colt. Foundation made Deauville look slow in the Royal Lodge and Deauville will be fitted with cheekpieces here in a bid to reverse those placings.
Deauville is currently second favourite for the Epsom Classic at 16s. Whilst it's also felt that soft ground won't bring out the best in him, his full brother handled it and he did win his maiden on heavy. His trainer Aidan O'Brien has a very good record in Saturday's race and saddles three of the seven declared runners. He also saddles Johannes Vermeer (Seamie Heffernan) and third string Port Douglas (Emmet McNamara).
Hugo Palmer is proving his worth in the training ranks and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him win this with Mengli Khan if conditions do deteriorate. He obviously has to improve to do so as he takes the leap from Maiden company into a Group One, but it has been done before. He won his maiden at Nottingham on heavy ground and he should have improved for that as he still looked inexperienced.
Foundation is clearly the best horse in the race and it may be foolish to take him on, but at the prices, I'm going with Mengli Khan to cause a bit of an upset in conditions that are far from ideal for the protagonists.
I'm so excited for the start of Cheltenham's new season. One thing to note is trainers that have their horses forward at this stage of the season and John Ferguson is one of them. He has an enviable strike rate at the moment and his partnership with Aidan Coleman is working out very well.
Ferguson, whose Penglai Pavilion was so impressive at Prestbury Park on Friday, has four horses declared for Saturday's card; Devilment in the 2.45, Parlour Games in the 4.30, Arabian Revolution in the 5.05 and High Bridge in the 5.40, and all four have a chance.
Parlour Games may be the best of them, but he'll be a short priced favourite. He's a Grade One winner over hurdles (Challow Hurdle) and has some very smart placed form too. I wouldn't be keen to take a short price about a chasing debutante in a Novices' Chase, but will be watching with interest.
Nigel Twiston-Davies is another trainer to watch at this stage of the season and he could be amongst the winners on Saturday. He has three runners and Mont Choisy looks the pick in the 3.55 while Astracad isn't without a chance in a tricky looking opener.
Nicky Henderson has chosen the Masterson Holdings Hurdle (2.45) for the seasonal reappearance of Triumph Hurdle third Hargam. The rain that fell before his Festival race was against him and the good ground at Cheltenham on Saturday looks perfect. Many trainers have been doing a rain dance as the season cranks up a gear, but I imagine Nicky Henderson is happy with the state of affairs.
Barry Geraghty has made a good start to his association with owner JP McManus and this horse gives him the opportunity to team up with his former boss, Henderson. He's my best bet on the card.
Aside from Hargam, I like the look of Luca Cumani's filly Koora in the 2.25 at Newbury, the Worthington's Victoria Club Stakes.
It looks like Romsdal will go off favourite for John Gosden and William Buick, but he has been out of form of late and there were excuses for Koora's defeat in the Park Hill at Doncaster last time out. She is a half sister to Milan, but didn't appear to stay as well as her sibling over the Leger trip, so the drop back to a mile and a half will suit.
If there is any rain at Newbury she should handle any going change and Cumani remains in good form. It would be a boost for the stable having lost a number of horses a few weeks ago when owner Sheikh Obaid al Maktoum decided to relocate them to another yard.
