Eclipse and Juddmonte International winner Roaring Lion heads over to Ireland to take on Coolmore’s best in the Group One Irish Champion Stakes.
Qatar Racing’s colt has proven himself to be very good at this 10-furlong trip, and it would take a leap of faith and a fair few excuses to see his old adversary Saxon Warrior reverse form from three consecutive defeats.
But I can’t quite bring myself to agree with so many pundits that Roaring Lion is clear as the best of the two, given how close the finish was in the Coral Eclipse where Saxon Warrior looked like he had bounced back to his Guineas-winning best, despite being turned out so soon after his Irish Derby third.
However, I’d be hard pushed to recommend the son of Deep Impact as a bet at the current 7/2 – not when I can have some each-way money on his stablemate ATHENA at 50/1.
She won the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks over in the USA in the first part of the summer but then bombed out in her next start stateside at a time when the O’Brien yard was under a cloud.
No such excuses have been given but she clearly didn’t run up to form, so I’m happy to put a line through it.
The last two renewals of the Irish Champion Stakes have gone to hold-up horses looping around the field up the centre of the track, which is exactly how Athena won her Grade 1 – watch below.
She’s miles behind Roaring Lion and Saxon Warrior on official ratings, but I can’t shake the memory of O’Brien’s comments around her after she had been beaten by Arc second-favourite Sea Of Class at Newbury.
He essentially said he feared Sea Of Class in the Irish Oaks – which she won – as they really rate Athena, and she’s got enough form in the book to subscribe to that.
I just think there are more than enough positives to have an each-way bet at 50/1, particularly as I’m highly doubtful we’ll see this race run at a strong gallop.
The Ballydoyle team will do what they can to set the race up for Saxon Warrior, which might involve a pacemaker dropping the anchor to turn it into a crawl.
With Roaring Lion drawn wide he doesn’t have much choice but to drop in, so he’s going to have to do it the hard way and I can see an upset on the cards.
I’ll happily take the 10/1 odds of Athena placing as insurance.
0.75pts each-way Athena @50/1, 18:35 Leopardstown, Saturday
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