Godolphin trainer Saeed Bin Suroor has the Coral Easter Classic in his sights with two exciting contenders.
Following the success of Champion Trainer Charlie Appleby last season, Godolphin counterpart Saeed Bin Suroor is also planning to target the Championship Finals with a dedicated team including exciting Coral Easter Classic prospect Let’s Go. Described succinctly as a “very nice horse” after his Wolverhampton success in July, the three-year-old son of Street Cry took his form to a new level when he finished just half a lengths behind Appleby’s Middle Distance Champion Tryster in a valuable conditions race at Chelmsford in September.
That was only Let’s Go’s fourth career start so he could emerge as a leading contender for the Good Friday crown with Tryster’s Dubai World Cup campaign likely to rule him out. The Listed Churchill Stakes over a mile and a quarter at Lingfield in late November looks an obvious target en route to the Group Three Winter Derby and the Classic itself.
Dubai could be an option once again for Tha’ir who scored in a Meydan handicap in February and showed his class on Polytrack when landing a valuable Listed race in Turkey in early September. Behind him in fifth at Veliefendi was last season’s multiple Listed winner Grendisar. Rated 106, the entire son of New Approach gives Bin Suroor another viable option in the Middle Distance division.
Khusoosy, a Hard Spun gelding out of a Galileo mare, is bred to stay and showed a likeable attitude when taking his record at Kempton to three from four in September. Dane O’Neill, who rode the gelding at the Sunbury track, remarked: “He’s slightly mentally immature but he definitely doesn’t shirk the issue.” With obvious improvement, he promises to stay at least a mile and a half this winter.
Another prospect is three-year-old Shamardal gelding Power Game, who completed back-to-back wins over a mile at Kempton in late summer. Though progressing to a mark in the high eighties, he falls short of the standard required to run in Dubai but looks the sort to thrive on the confidence he gains from racing and might be good enough to be competitive in the Mile qualifiers.
Lovely Memory bustled up subsequent Pattern performer Jellicle Ball at Kempton as a juvenile and returned from a long lay-off to win a mile maiden at Chelmsford in September. She is bred to go further but travels well enough in her races to suggest that she might be a handful in Fillies and Mares qualifiers this winter. Whether the Final trip of seven furlongs at Lingfield would prove too sharp for her remains to be seen.
Two mile wins at Kempton have elevated Street Cry filly Pure Diamond to a mark in the low 90s and she remains open to progress on Polytrack and Tapeta. She impressed William Buick when dominating her maiden in August and could make her mark in qualifiers for the 3YO Mile Final. A more familiar name on the All-Weather is Greatest Journey, a son of Raven’s Pass who thrived after being gelded last winter, winning four on the bounce. Rested all summer, he probably needs to progress again to be a force in the Mile Final come March but this big horse could prove stronger this winter and looks poised to play a leading role.
