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| Staff Writer |
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Juddmonte's St Leger hope could be Arrest following his impressive victory at Newbury. The Frankel colt, trained by John and Thady Gosden, won the Chester Vase by a significant margin back in May.
However, he failed to make an impact in the Derby at Epsom and the King Edward VII at Royal Ascot, both of which were run on good to firm ground. But at Newbury, on good to soft ground, he looked more comfortable and won the Gr.3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes by a length and a half with Frankie Dettori on board. Arrest is now being considered for the Doncaster Classic, but the horse will require suitable ground conditions to run.
“He’s obviously won his trial well and we know he likes a bit of ease in the ground,” said Barry Mahon of Juddmonte.
“I think as long as there’s that ease in the ground, the owners have said they’d like to go the Leger route, so that’s the way we’ll go.”
It appears that Juddmonte has another impressive horse in Macduff, who comfortably won his debut race at Newmarket earlier this month. This colt, sired by Sea The Stars, emerged victorious against a field of highly-bred horses and boasts an impressive pedigree of his own. Macduff's dam, Present Tense, is a half-sibling to the legendary Kingman. While his connections were pleased with his maiden victory, they do not plan to rush his development, as they anticipate he will truly shine as a 3YO.
“It was a lovely debut, he’s a nice horse,” Mahon said.
“He’s a big horse, he won’t have a lot of racing this year, Ralph is taking his time and we’ll probably see how he is in the middle of September and pick another race.
“He’s from a good family, his mother is a sister to Kingman. He’s a nice horse that’s just full of potential, next year is going to be his year and I’d imagine that we won’t over-race him this year.”