Cracksman primed for French mission after Newmarket gallop

Watch Cracksman's racecourse gallop at Newmarket on Tuesday and John Gosden's reaction and read Andy Stephens' report from the Rowley Mile.

John Gosden had a worrying message for those assigned with beating Cracksman this summer when asserting at Newmarket on Tuesday that the highest-rated three-year-old in the world last year had turned from boy into man.

Six months after his runaway seven-length win in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot, the son of Frankel galloped over a mile before racing on the first day of the bet365 Craven meeting at Newmarket under Frankie Dettori in the company of stablemate Master Singer.

Dettori described underfoot conditions on the Rowley Mile as very soft and with the wind whistling across the course there was never any danger of speed limits being broken.

The 47-year-old invited his mount to stretch out three furlongs from home and he quickly pulled clear of his galloping companion, albeit with Rab Havlin motionless in the saddle.

Anthony Oppenheimer, the owner of Cracksman, watched on with satisfaction in the company of family members.

There was no heavy breathing in the paddock from Cracksman afterwards and he even found time to reply to some whinnying by a younger Mark Johnston-trained colt in the pre-parade ring.

Small but significant signs that indicate he will not lack for fitness when he reappears in the Prix Ganay at ParisLongchamp on Sunday week.

“He was very relaxed beforehand and very switched on through his work,” Gosden said. “He finished out strongly and has had a nice, normal blow. I couldn’t be more pleased.

“We’ve been a bit starved of working them on the grass and mentally this does them a lot of good.”

Cracksman was placed in the Derby and Irish equivalent before he cranked up his form up a gear in the second half of the campaign, rounding off with an exhibition on Champions Day that brought back memories of his mighty sire in full flow.

“He has grown a lot and is much stronger (than last year) when he was running exceptionally well in Derbies and things,” Gosden said. “He was very much like a 14-year-old kid then and now he’s more like a solid 24-year-old.

“It’s a bit of of a difference to the young adolescent who was racing last year.”

Warming to the theme of equine development and maturity, he added: “When are they fully developed? Probably the thoroughbred at five, they don’t get all their teeth until they are four.

“He has a great mind on him. He just enjoys life and I like the way he lopes about the place and gets on with the job. It’s great because there is an excitable side to the nature of some of the those by his father but he is very chilled.”

Inevitably, the conversation drifted to Enable, the outstanding filly who carried all before her last season and extended her sequence of Group One victories to five with an emphatic win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

She achieved more than Cracksman last year - much more - but such was the explosiveness of his display at Ascot that it is him who, officially, is the higher rated.

Some racing fans are sceptical that the stablemates will ever meet but Gosden sees it differently and suggests the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, at Ascot in July, and Arc, in October, are natural races in which they will clash.

“Mr Oppenheimer is not frightened of taking anyone on - he said he would kick Treve into touch before the Arc (with Golden Horn) and I said ‘oh no, that is really asking for it’ but he did kick Treve into touch, so there you are.

“Logical places they could meet are the King George, which is our biggest all-aged race, and the Arc, the biggest in Europe.

“But let’s see how it all unfolds. Doing what is right by the horse is the golden rule.

“If you start setting out plans and filling out the diary it’s funny how it doesn’t work out that way with horses.”

Gosden is pleased with Enable’s wellbeing and confirmed she is likely to reappear in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, at the Curragh, or the Investec Coronation Cup at the start of June.

He said the latter race was “more likely”, which will thrill the Epsom executive.

“They are both very assertive horses and they know what they like,” he said. “They are like pro fighters. You go with them; watch the horse. They normally tell you want they want.”

Mark Johnston's Qipco 2000 Guineas candidate Elarqam also went through his paces with two three-year-old stable companions.

Unbeaten as a two-year-old, he was ridden by his owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's retained jockey Jim Crowley.

Elarqam is certainly bred for the job, as he is also by Frankel and out of Johnston's multiple Group One winner Attraction, and will now head straight for the colts' Classic back at Newmarket on May 5. He is 7-1.

Charlie Johnston, the Middleham handler's son and assistant, said: "We're very happy. We weren't here to find out how good he is - it was purely exercise and another away day for him.

"He's still very lightly raced so we just wanted to get him away from him and have a dry run for the Guineas.

"Sheikh Hamdan himself was quite intent on him coming straight for the Guineas so it was always the plan and is well on track.

"It's very special given he's a son of Attraction. He's a dead-ringer of his mother - he's a male version of her and has all the idiosyncrasies she did.

"In October we felt he would definitely be a 10-furlong horse at some stage but he's showing plenty of pace so he'll be happy over a mile, for now."

Watch the Prix Ganay meeting from ParisLongchamp on April 29 live on Racing UK.