The weekend’s highlight came at Sandown where the feature, the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, provided the platform for Golden Horn to stamp himself top of the class in Europe.
Just how good Golden Horn is remains up in the air. The Eclipse was steadily run early on with the race not really warming up until the 600m mark when The Grey Gatsby threw down his challenge at his younger rival. Golden Horn responded like a good horse and ran away to win by a widening 3.5 lengths but the overall time was hardly spectacular.
After adjusting for weight carried Golden Horn was only half a length quicker than the handicap (won by Chain Of Daisies, a filly who could well be worth a spot in the blackbook!) over the same course later on the day.
Sectional times taken by Timeform confirm the visual – Golden Horn romped away from his rivals late and is capable of posting faster overall times given a stronger gallop – and his rating of 133 continues to come with a ‘p’ attached, indicating that Golden Horn is expected to prove capable of posting an even higher rating if required.
Connections indicated that the King George at Ascot later in the month might be the next stop on Golden Horn’s summer tour and he has been installed as the clear favourite for the summer showpiece.
In South Africa the Durban July was won by Power King who had to survive a protest before taking home the valuable prize.
Power King is fairly smart but he wasn’t the best performance in the race on ratings, that honour going to fourth placegetter Futura who gave the first three plenty of weight and finished hot on their heels.
Futura won the Champions Cup on the back of a July placing last season and he’s an even better horse now
Despite defeat Futura’s July run confirmed him the best horse in South Africa on Racing And Sports’ Ratings, narrowly ahead of tops sprinter Captain Of All.
Things didn’t work out for star three-year-olds Legal Eagle and Majmu who finished fifth and ninth respectively.
Next season’s stars were on show in the Golden Slipper for fillies and Golden Horseshoe for colts, both over 1400m.
It was the colts division that shone brightest, Seventh Plain following up his Gold Medallion win with another Group 1 success, though this was one he had to fight much harder for, sticking his head out to win only narrowly.
Seven horses got as close to him as the runner-up did in the Gold Medallion, so it’s hard to say that he showed improved form, but he did show good fighting qualities and remains at the top of his generation in South Africa.
