Postponed has bounced back to his best to defeat Cox Plate placegetter Highland Reel in the Group One Juddmonte International at York. He wasn’t right three and a half weeks ago for the King George.
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Postponed missed last month’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes – won by Tuesday’s rival Highland Reel – due to a respiratory infection.
Roger Varian has the patience of a saint.
“He is a colt with terrific turn of foot and a high cruising speed”.
Varian is confident the drop back from a mile and a half will not worry Postponed.
Hawkbill is in a similar position.
Last autumn the sheikh famously removed Postponed and more than 30 other horses from Luca Cumani and sent them to Roger Varian.
Godolphin chief John Ferguson said: “We skipped the King George as Hawkbill loves a mile and a quarter”. I’ve won twice on him at York, I hope he’s in good order, and if we get a bit of rain during the week, he should have a great chance. “After this race, you will see a better horse – 100 per cent”. “He wasn’t ready. At Sandown [first time out in the Gordon Richards Stakes] he was beaten by an ordinary horse”. “I would have just liked them all to run in a straight line so we could have known”.
For a race that saw no order change in the top two finishers after a decisive move at the top of the stretch, Postponed’s victory in the £546,542.62 ($710,505) Juddmonte International (Eng-I) supplied a heaping dose of late intrigue. Postponed beat Highland Reel and Dariyan at Meydan in the winter, and the Dubai Sheema Classic trio will be joined by The Grey Gatsby, who was third behind Arabian Queen past year when he was also runner-up to Solow in the Dubai Turf.
Postponed is rated joint-fifth in the world alongside Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist, Japanese sensation Maurice, and rising Hong Kong star Werther.
The field is completed by the ALMODOVAR, who was far from disgraced when third behind DARTMOUTH and Highland Reel on his first venture into pattern company in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.
As for yesterday’s Betway-sponsored Great Voltigeur, the O’Brien-trained Idaho enhanced his claims for next month’s Ladbrokes St Leger with a cosy victory from stablemate Housesofparliament who made the running and proved hard to pass.
Also in America on the same day the unbeaten Songbird (24th) bids to extend her record to a ideal ten in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. “She surprised us first time how green she was”. He’s one of Ann’s nicest two-year-olds, so I’m hoping he’ll give me a great spin round.
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“It looks like that’s going to be the plan, without anything being written in stone, at the moment”.
