Horse Talk: Bet on Al Kazeem in Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown
Al Kazeem faces a maximum of seven runners in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown on Saturday, where he is fancied to secure his third successive Group 1 victory.
The five-year-old has been a revelation in recent months, winning his last four starts that culminated with a victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he showed plenty of fight to reel in long-term leader Mukhadram.
The neck victory in the £500,000 contest was the son of Dubawi’s sixth in 11 starts, including a one and a half-length victory over Camelot in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May.
Al Kazeem is priced at 6-4 with Paddy Power and is taken to justify favouritism in what has already been a remarkable season where the ultimate goal is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October.
“The Eclipse is the plan, and after that the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown,” trainer Roger Charlton said. “It gives him two months off [after the Eclipse], then a month before the Arc.”
Paddy Power said: “Al Kazeem is a worthy favourite after his last two runs, but I’m just wondering if there’s a chink in the form with Camelot seemingly not the force he once was.
“Mars was staying on like a comet in the St James’s Palace so should be well suited by the extra two furlongs, and I expect the difference in price between him and the favourite to narrow before Saturday.”
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Simon Jackson is a freelance racing journalist based in north west London. He can be reached at jacksonsports1@yahoo.co.uk for press and PR enquiries, or racing/betting related news stories and features.
