Sussex Stakes
 

by Tony O'Hehir
.

EXCELLENT ART, who led home a 1-2-3 for Aidan O'Brien in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, is likely to spearhead the Ballydoyle challenge for the BGC Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on August 1, for which he is 4-1 third favourite with Coral.

However stablemate George Washington, whom Coral have installed as 3-1 favourite, is unlikely to run.

Winner of the Mill Reef Stakes when trained by Neville Callaghan last year, Excellent Art made his debut for O'Brien in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains in which he encountered traffic problems before finishing well for fourth place behind stablemate Astronomer Royal.

At Royal Ascot, the son of Pivotal beat Duke Of Marmalade and Astronomer Royal, both of whom are among O'Brien's six entries for the Group 1 Sussex.

O'Brien said: "We won't be finalising plans for a while yet, but the situation is that we are looking at sending Excellent Art to Goodwood."

According to O'Brien, there are no firm plans for George Washington although it appears unlikely that the Coral-Eclipse Stakes third will be on his trainer's team for Goodwood. O'Brien's other entries for the Sussex are Archipenko and Trinity College. The trainer has won the race twice, with Giant's Causeway in 2000 and Rock Of Gibraltar in 2002.

UAE Derby winner Asiatic Boy is a 9-2 chance with Coral and had a spin at Goodwood yesterday morning to gain experience of the undulating track.

Sussex Stakes
Coral: 3 George Washington, 7-2 Ramonti, 4 Excellent Art, 9-2 Asiatic Boy, 7 Jeremy, 9 Duke Of Marmalade, 14 Arch Swing, Echo Of Light, 16 Astronomer Royal, Creachadoir

I cant wait to see what Asiatic Boy is like but going right handed for the first time, probably a undulating course for the first time, against older horses for the first time and probably soft ground for the first time, ill be passing him at 3-1.

Damn, nice field.

Good luck to ECHO and George and AB, oh hell (almost) all of them!

Jeremy always worries me a bit..... one of these days he'll get a really nice win. NOT rootiong for him here, I'm just saying.....

This race is fulll of ifs and maybes. Most of the field have questio marks surrounding them.

Ramonti would be my idea of the winner, he has shown he goes on any ground, he is tough and consistant. He will probably be my play in the race.

Asiatic Boy returns!

Actually for selfish reasons I hope my boy shows that he belongs in America...on the dirt.

They aren't likely to take him to America, whatever happens in the Sussex. At least we are getting some nice weather now. The ground shouldn't be soft.

Mike De Kock says this horse is better on turf than he is on dirt.

Id love to see Asiatic win well but he's 2 tough challangers.. Ramonti would be the safest bet for me!

Doesn't look like Ramonti will be winning with BOTH of us tipping him up :D

A really good race...

Wednesday, Goodwood, Britain
BGC SUSSEX S.-G1, ,300,000, 3yo/up, 1mT
SC PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY WT
1 2 Asiatic Boy (Arg) Not for Sale (Arg) Marwing 133
2 3 Decado (Ire) Danehill Dancer (Ire) McDonogh 133
3 4 Jeremy Danehill Dancer (Ire) Moore 133
4 5 Munaddam Aljabr R Hills 133
5 8 Ramonti (Fr) Martino Alonso (Ire) Dettori 133
6 6 Archipenko Kingmambo McCabe 126
7 7 Excellent Art (GB) Pivotal (GB) Spencer 126
8 1 Trinity College Giant’s Causeway Murtagh 126

Still going for Ramonti for this. He is consistant and he looks very classy. Any conditions come alike to him, and he has the least amount of question marks against his name

I'll be objective here (for once) :D ....

I think Jeremy wins this (but am rooting for AB and Excellent Art).

You're deserting the godolphin boy? :eek:

Mr. No Chance:

As I am heading off to work shortly, will you so kindly give a full account of the beauty and speed of one, Mr. Asiatic Boy? Should he not run so well, please sugar coat it. :D

MY Godolphin boy is not in the race.

Ofcourse i will, Miss Sightseek :D

Well, sightseek. Your boy looks great in the paddock, really relaxed, too

I wish I could see!!!

Asiatic jumps well, but restrained to hold third place.

Aidan O'brien pace makers lead

Excellent art last early

AB still third

Ramonti taking third

Ramonti takes over
asiactic boy can't quicken

Ramonti just held on from Excellent Art in 2nd

Jeremy just got thrid from Asiatic Boy, who rallied again after looking beaten with a couple of furlongs to run.

Ramonti was the best horse on the day. Excellent Art never really travelled with much ease in the closing stages. He did close on Ramonti and it was tight on the wire, but Ramonti is such a tough horse, i think he might have pulled out more if he needed to.

Asiatic Boy ran a nice race in defeat on a track, which couldn't be more different from a left handed flat track on dirt. He seemed to get tired in the closing stages before finding his second wind. He would have finished 3rd with another few strides. Maybe he just lacked that race fitness, which the others had.

He was a bit keen/rank early on and that might have cost him a little bit.

Race fitness was probably the key here though.

Thanks I really appreciate it! Great recap too.
'Boy had lots of things to overcome in this one so hopefully it's upwards from here!

I posted that without taking a breath, i think!!

He looked good, and seemed to cope with the conditions. As i said previously, i think it had more to do with race fitness more than anything else. I think they might kick themselves not for running at Royal Ascot, just to get that race into him, which would have left him spot on for this today.

Just as i thought.

"connections of Asiatic Boy reported that he blew up"

"he needed the race badly"

"this will bring him on for a possible tilt at at the Juddmonte International"

Thanks! Is that race the end of September / Early October?

No, this race is towards the end of this month. The 21st, i think. It should suit him. Ran at York over 10furlongs. Not only is York a really flat track but it is also left handed. It should really suit him.

If he did run in this race, he will probably be up against Authorized, Notnowcato, George Washington, Duke Of Marmalade, Laverock and Lucarno and many more possibles.

It already looks like this will be a brilliant race.

Oooh! Should be an excellent field. Thanks for the information.

Thanks to all the info, I had a $20 win on Frankie, and a $5 exacta with Ramonti over EA
:D

My cut is a very fair 15% :D




Well done.


One thing though, you had $20 win on Ramonti....... not Frankie. The horse won, not the jockey (i'm very picky about these things)

Okay, but Frankie is my boy
:D

Just saw the race (Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LX9mJoEq8w), nice performance by Ramonti. He's won 10 out of 16 now with 5 placings, that's a really good record.

I was more impressed with Rio De La Plata in the Vintage Stakes though (Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-P_8...=user&search=). Wonderful acceleration. :eek: Possibly a stable star for the future for Godolphin.

Thanks for posting the links to the races! :)

Man, how did Ramonti go off at 9-2 and Jeremy 7-2?? NoChance, any explanation.. I love the way some trainers for months on end say that a race is their target and then when they run in it, they lack fitness. Asiatic Boy is just another example after the Japanese last year... I think its ridiculous.. He did run quite well though and would love to see him take on the best in Europe at 10f.. and then on to the BC Classic ;-)

Ooooh, I like the way you think!

im not losing hope just yet that he'll be world champ this year. Im just a bit annoyed that DeKock had months to prepare him for the race that he supposedly targeted and then said that he was lacking in fitness and will come on for the run!

Well, if you watched the betting you could have been forgiven to think that Ramonti had lost a leg.

He was steadily supported in the morning (7/2 into 10/3) and he remained steady at that price until about 15 mins before the off and all of a sudden he just drifted for apparently no reason. I snapped up a bit of 5/1 just before the off. Considering i had only backed him at 7/2, i had to have more on at 5/1!!!!

I know, it annoys me about that. They didn't run him at Ascot because they wanted to get him ready for this, and when it comes down to it, he isn't fit enough to do himself justice! They should have run at Ascot, just to get that run into him. The Juddmonte will be tough, but he will beat Authorized standing on his head, Notnowcato might be inconvenienced by fast ground, Duke Of Marmalade is looking exposed. George Washington isn't certain for the race. If they get him there 100%, i think he will win this race....... Sightseek, i think you should come to York for the 21st!!!!

just looked at the post script..DeKock said “I will have to discuss it with his owner, but I would think he will go for the Juddmonte International now. That was always the plan and I don't see any reason why we should change it.”

I do agree that he'd be hard to beat at York. Id like to see Ramonti try 10f there as well. That would be fascinating to watch!

LOL, if I ever win the lottery I'm just going to fly around watching my favorite horses no matter what country they run in...oh yeah, and I'll spend a lot of time in Italy and Dubai :cool:

I respect Mike DeKock a great deal, but if i'm honest, i don't think he has a clue what he's doing with this horse. As soon as he won the UAE Derby he said Royal Ascot was the PLAN. Then a few weeks later he said the Sussex had always been the PLAN, not Royal Ascot. Now he runs in the Sussex and fitness beat him, he is now saying the Juddmonte has always been the PLAN!

Now, i've heard of having Plan A and Plan B, but it seems like Asiatic Boy has so many plans someone might have to add a few letters to the alphabet!

Just imagine, York, on a beautiful summer day, seeing Asiatic Boy winning a European Gr1 in fine style, you standing near the winners enclosure, taking pictures of your boy...........

Are you sure you won't be visiting? :D

I agree, did they ever say he had physical issues or anything?

No, but secretly, i think something may have gone with his early prep, hence the reason to scrap Ascot after he had clearly stated that as the plan after his UAE Derby win. I might be wrong, i might be reading too much into it, but it seemed very strange to me when the news that he wouldn't be going to Royal Ascot came out.

This horse has so many plans, i hope he has a personal advisor