Racing: Camelot eyes Triple Crown

Published on 02/07/2012 01:27

CAMELOT will have either one more race or a racecourse gallop before his bid for Triple Crown glory in the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster in September.

The 2000 Guineas and Investec Derby hero kept his unbeaten record intact with a determined victory in Saturday’s Irish Derby and is now set for a midsummer break.

A trip to Town Moor is firmly on the agenda as he aims to become the first horse since Nijinsky in 1970 to win the Guineas, Derby and Leger in Britain, but plans in the meantime are up in the air.

What does seem unlikely, however, is that the three-year-old will be taking on Frankel in next month’s Juddmonte International at York.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien said yesterday: “Camelot seems fine this morning and ate up well. Obviously the St Leger is the race we’re looking at and he’ll either have a racecourse gallop or a race in between. We will do the same after all the big races and wait a week before sitting down to discuss what will happen. To be honest, there aren’t that many options between now and then. The Juddmonte International at York wouldn’t be an ideal prep for the St Leger as he’d be coming back to a mile and a quarter – he is a strong traveller and we worked hard at getting him to settle.”

O’Brien also revealed running plans for a number of his other Ballydoyle inmates. He said: “The plan for So You Think at the moment is the Eclipse at Sandown next Saturday and that possibly could be his last race before going back to Australia. Imperial Monarch will run in the Grand Prix de Paris on 14 July at Longchamp.”

Of Was and Maybe, who were both taken out of Sunday’s Pretty Polly Stakes on account of the ground, O’Brien said: “Was will run in the Darley Irish Oaks next. Maybe will run next in the Group One Falmouth Stakes [over a mile] at Newmarket later this month.”

SELECTIONS

Pontefract

2.30 Cosmic Moon

3.00 Moody Tunes 3.30 Gadobout Dancer

4.00 Royal Rascal

4.30 I’m So Glad

5.00 Rosie’s Lady

5.30 Minalisa

6.00 Copperwood

Wolverhampton

2.15 Ficelle

2.45 Mother Jones

3.15 Aseela

3.45 Unlimited

4.15 Angel Cake

4.45 Sondeduro

5.15 Danceyourselfdizzy

5.45 Footstepsofspring

Ffos Las

6.25 Taste The Wine

6.55 Masai King

7.25 Tallulah Mai

7.55 Polar Auroras

8.25 Henry Allingham

8.55 Prodigality

9.25 The Jailer

Windsor

6.40 Hoyam

7.10 Basle

7.40 Funcheon Vale

8.10 Choral Festival (nap)

8.40 Zowaina

9.10 Viscount Vert

Double

Choral Festival

8:10 Windsor

Rosie’s Lady

5:00 Pontefract