Juvenile Watch: Expect plenty of improvement from Brighter

The first two-year old race of the season has historically been a race for early precocious types that then, generally, fail to progress any further.

However, the past two winners, Chipotle in 2021 and Persian Force in 2022, bucked that trend considerably. Chipotle went on to win the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot and held his form right through until October where he won the William Hill Trophy at Redcar, while Persian Force ran another seven times in his juvenile season, finishing runner-up in the Group One Phoenix Stakes and was last seen finishing a gallant fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland.

My instinct is that this year’s winner, Doddie’s Impact, will be more in the mould of a traditional Brocklesby winner. The heavy ground and large field of sixteen runners (compared to twelve and nine in previous renewals) made for a deeply attritional race, where stamina and guts, as opposed to precocious speed, were the qualities required to prevail.

I’d be keen to oppose the winner next time out and will be giving a wide birth to any horse that ran competitively in this race, as I’m sure it will take plenty of recovering from, given how tired they all finished.

The two exceptions to this rule might be the David Evans-trained pair, Part Time Britain and Go To Work, who were both slow to jump from the stalls (Go To Work exceptionally so) and, as a result, didn’t have as hard a race as many.

I do sincerely hope I’m wrong, though, as Doddie’s Impact, is named in memory of the late, great Scottish rugby international Doddie Weir who, in his retirement, led the fight against MND.

Cross Channel Racing, the owners of Doddie’s Impact have pledged 50 per cent of all prize money will go to the My Name’s Doddie Foundation to help fund research into finding a cure for MND.

The race to be leading first season sire is always interesting and is also hugely important to the studs standing any new stallion, given how impatient for results a large sway of the bloodstock industry has become. An early winner settles nerves and can be a sign of good things to come.

Joint favourites (with SkyBet) for this season’s title are Blue Point and Ten Sovereigns, and both of them landed that all important early winner last week.

Blue Point was a high-class two-year old, winning the Gimcrack and finishing runner-up in the Middle Park before developing into an even better sprinter in his later seasons.

He struck with just his second runner as Action Point justified favouritism to win at Kempton for Archie Watson and Hollie Doyle. Action Point’s dam, Khaleesi Wind, a daughter of Exceed and Excel, didn’t make it to the track but boasts a nice pedigree as a full sister to five-furlong Listed winner Excelette. However, she had failed to deliver a winner from three offspring to have made it to the track.

It can only be viewed as a positive that Blue Point has sired Khaleesi Wind’s first winner and, given that he will have runners to come from more prolific producers than her, then there is every hope that he will be as successful at stud as he was on the track.

Ten Sovereigns certainly has the pedigree to be a leading first season sire. He was unbeaten in three starts as a two-year old, the highlight being his win in the Group One Middle Park. His three-year old season was less productive, though, as he failed to stay the mile trip in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and was then beaten when a short price for the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. He did gain a final win in the July Cup, though, where he emphatically reversed form with the Commonwealth Cup winner Advertise.

His sire, No Nay Never, was leading first season sire in 2018 and enjoyed further success with his juveniles last season, with Little Black Bear, Blackbeard and Meditate winning countless Group Ones.

The stud career of Ten Sovereigns could not have got off to a better start as his first runner, Brighter, won at Dundalk, despite showing plenty of signs of immaturity (watch below).

A €110k purchase from Arqana, he is a half-brother to Charm Appeal who was twice a winner as a two-year old in France before progressing as a three-year old to land a Listed contest.

Brighter looks the type to progress further and, unusually for an Aidan O’Brien-trained juvenile, he looked less than composed when under pressure plus forfeited ground by hanging to his right.

If he can race more professionally next time out, he looks capable of at least defying a penalty in a novice contest.