15th-Oct-2022

I think that Inspiral is too short here.  She was a really exciting filly last year, and it was a pity that she had to miss the Guineas, and she was impressive in winning the Coronation Stakes on her debut this season, but she underperformed in the Falmouth Stakes, and she wasn’t overly impressive in winning the Prix Jacques le Marois last time.  She is priced up on her reputation and on her precocity, and I am happy to be against her.

Modern Games hasn’t got the recognition that he has been due, probably because he has been winning on foreign shores.  But he is top class, he won a controversial Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last season, and he won the French Guineas this season, and he was an impressive winner of the Woodbine Mile in Canada last time, a Grade 1 race.  In the interim, he ran Baaeed to less than two lengths in the Sussex Stakes.  He is top class, and he shouldn’t be a 9/2 shot.

I think that Bayside Boy can go well too at a big price.  He has plenty to find on ratings, but he was a high-class juvenile last season, and he wasn’t beaten far in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in a race that wasn’t run to suit him.

He did well to win last time in his first-time blinkers at Sandown, a race from which the third-placed Escobar came out and won the Challenge Cup at Ascot two weeks ago.  With that win under his belt, and with the blinkers on for the second time, he could step forward again.

BAYSIDE BOY WON (ADV 16/1, SP 33/1)

MODERN GAMES 2ND (ADV 9/2, SP 4/1)