Wragg has big shout with Passion
The Jardine Lloyd Thompson Huxley Stakes looks tricky on paper as there are question marks about nearly all the runners in the field.
But a progressive 2004 campaign gives Wragg’s five-year-old very decent prospects.
After starting off in all-weather handicaps last winter, he subsequently defeated Solskjaer in Ireland and returned to the Emerald Isle to finish third to Ace in the Desmond Stakes, a performance that confirmed him as Pattern class.
Wragg then sent Grand Passion back to Lingfield’s Polytrack and he nicely took the Churchill Stakes in November before tackling the Winter Derby in March.
Although ninth that day, he was only five lengths behind the smart winner Eccentric in what was a decent renewal. That will have put him spot-on for Chester and with Wragg’s near one-in-three strike rate at the Roodee, he can take this below-average Group Three.
Aidan O’Brien is starting to try out all of his potential Derby pieces to see which one best fits the puzzle and Almighty gets his turn in the MBNA Europe Bank Chester Vase.
The son of Sadler’s Wells went into plenty of notebooks with an eyecatching victory in a Navan maiden last October and Fallon has made no secret of his liking for the colt.
However, he is on something of a retrieving mission after putting in a disappointing display when only fourth of five in a Group Three race at Leopardstown last month.
Nonetheless, there are grounds for believing that Almighty did not show his true potential that day as O’Brien reported that he had done very little work and would improve.
It would be no surprise if he were to advertise his Derby claims in good style today.
The form of Newmarket’s often informative Wood Ditton Stakes is working out well and Sir Michael Stoute’s Mountain High, third that day, is strongly fancied to break his duck in the Boodles Diamond Maiden Stakes.
Fashionable, the easy winner at Newmarket went on to win the Pretty Polly and Greg Chung’s Industrial Spirit made a big impression when following up at Warwick, so this half-brother to Islington can take this on the way to bigger things.
