Alamshar earns top marks from handicapper
John Oxx’s colt streaked home from Sulamani and Kris Kin in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, a performance Gray rates as one of the best of recent years.
“We had a really top-class field with 10 of the 12 horses rated 118 or more, and I felt Alamshar really stamped his authority on the race,” Gray said.
“He was on 126 going into the race, which was the same as Sulamani, with Kris Kin on 122 and Bollin Eric (fourth) on 121.
“Working through Sulamani, Bollin Eric and Kris Kin, it brings Alamshar out at 131.
“I think he’s a very, very good horse and he was tremendously impressive in a top-class field.
“Golan (last year’s winner) was rated 126, Galileo (successful in 2001) finished the year on 129, which was his King George performance, Montjeu (winner in 2000) was 130 while Daylami (1999 victor) was 130 in the King George but on subsequent performances he finished the year on 135.
“Alamshar is right up there on his running with the second, third and fourth. I kept Sulamani on 126 as he didn’t have a clear run.”
Alamshar, who is set to head for the Irish Champion Stakes next, has had well-documented problems with his back in the past but was reported in top form yesterday morning.
Oxx’s wife, Caitriona, said: “He’s brilliant. He travelled home perfectly and there were absolutely no problems. He’s in great form this morning.”
Nayef was sent off favourite for the big race but surprisingly finished out of the frame.
However, Marcus Tregoning said yesterday he felt the ground was to blame and is in no rush to nominate his next target.
The five-year-old finished 11 lengths adrift of Alamshar in the mile-and-a-half race on ground that was good, good to soft in places after some heavy rain.
“He’s come out of the race absolutely fine,” Tregoning said. “You could see on the way to the start that he wasn’t going to like the sticky ground. He’s got too good an action.
“Although we’ve got away with it before, it was soft when he won the Cumberland Lodge at Ascot and heavy when he won as a two-year-old at the same track, so he went through it.”
Nayef has already won the Group One Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot this season and he was second in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown last time, a race Tregoning believes may have taken its toll.
“It was a disappointing run but it’s nice to know there was a good reason,” he said.
“He had a hard race in the Eclipse and possibly the combination of factors just went against him.
“The most important thing is that we have got him back in great shape.”
Tregoning will bide his time before deciding where to send the Gulch horse next, although he does hold an entry in the Juddmonte International Stakes, a race he won last year, at York next month.
The Kingswood House handler added: “I think we will have to see how he goes from here. I wouldn’t completely rule out York but there is the Champion Stakes and other races for him later in the year.
“He’s already won a big race this season so we’re in no rush with him.”
Warrsan, though, who finished one place in front of Nayef in sixth, will be heading on his travels.
Clive Brittain’s charge is expected to tackle the Group One Credit Suisse Private Banking Pokal at Cologne next month.
The five-year-old finished nine and a half lengths behind the winner after Philip Robinson dropped him in at the back of the field.
But Brittain blames himself for the horse’s defeat.
“The decision to drop him out was not Philip’s and it’s probably me to blame as I gave him the wrong instructions,” he said.
“He was drawn 14 and we anticipated a fast pace, but that didn’t happen, and I’d rather tied Philip’s hands by telling him not to chase the leaders.
“I think he would have been a serious contender for the places otherwise and we were delighted with his run.”
Warrsan has already won the Vodafone Coronation Cup this season and is due to tackle the German race on August 17.
Brittain added: “He will have one more race now before we give him a rest for the Arc. He’ll probably go to Cologne for the race his brother Luso ran in.”
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor said he was delighted with Sulamani after his exertions on Saturday.
“Sulamani is sound, healthy and happy,” he told the Godolphin website.
“He ran a big race and his target is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (at Longchamp on October 5). He may have a race before the Arc.”
