20th-Jun-2019

I am backing Sangarius in the Hampton Court Stakes.

Sir Michael Stoute’s horse was a talented juvenile last season, he beat Bangkok on his racecourse debut at Newmarket, and he proved that he could handle easy ground when he landed a listed race at Doncaster on easy ground in September.  Connections thought enough of him to allow him take his chance in the Dewhurst, where he acquitted himself well in finishing fourth behind Too Darn Hot and Advertise and Anthony Van Dyck.

He was beaten on his debut this season, but he didn’t run badly in finishing third behind King Of Comedy, and King Of Comedy almost won the St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday.  Sangarius was weak in the market before that race, he opened at 7/2 and drifted to 11/2, so it is reasonable to expect that he will have come on for that run.

You know that Sir Michael Stoute will target Royal Ascot with him anyway, so that run should have brought him on nicely with this race in mind, a race that his trainer has won twice in the last 10 years.  Frankie Dettori is obviously a big positive, and I like the fact that he is drawn outside the three horses at the top of the market, Fox Chairman, Cape Of Good Hope and King Ottokar.

SANGARIUS WON (SP 13/2)