Buccellati

You can easily put a line through Buccellati’s run in the Coronation Cup at Epsom on Friday. He was keen enough through the early stages, and didn’t handle the descent that well, but he was still going well when William Buick went for a brave run up the rail on the inside of Frozen Fire. It is arguable that he shouldn’t have been going there. All weekend, horses were being pulled off the rail to go around pacemakers even if they had drifted off the rail because of the Epsom camber which invariably brings tiring horses back down onto the rail.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, Frozen Fire drifted back down onto the rail and ‘did’ Buccellati. The horse actually did well to stand up, but it was the end of the race for him. If he had got through the gap – and it did look like he was going well enough to get there – he would have emerged with a length advantage over Ask and two lengths on Youmzain, and that would have been interesting. He is worth another chance in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. He has run three times at Ascot and he has won twice there. He won’t have a penalty in the Hardwicke, whereas Group 1 winners and Group 2 winners will, and it he could go very close in it.

5th June 2009