Oxx will make late decision on Azamour
The Irish trainer is concerned that the going, which is described as good to soft, good in places yesterday, may not suit the colt who is yet to tackle anything worse than good to yielding ground.
“We have sent him to York anyway but the ground is on the slow side of good today. It just depends on how the ground is. It could go either way, if there’s no rain it could dry up a bit but if there’s more rain it could go soft,” said Oxx.
“It was difficult, we couldn’t leave him at home and it was a 48-hour declaration race so it is hard to predict the ground. We will leave the decision for tomorrow.”
The three-year-old son of Night Shift was placed in both the English and Irish 2000 Guineas but he stepped up on that to win the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last time.
Azamour will be stepping up to 10 furlongs for the first time today and Oxx is unsure as to whether he will stay. “The trip is a question but it was always going to be. He is a top-class horse at a mile and he looks like he would get further on his breeding and how he runs,” he said.
Unbeaten French colt Bago is the 13-8 favourite for the race with William Hill while Godolphin’s Sulamani is 5-2 and Azamour 9-4.
Oxx believes those two runners will be Azamour’s main rivals but he also believes Aidan O’Brien’s Tycoon will throw down a big challenge.
“Bago obviously stands out as he was the top two-year-old of last year but if the ground was soft, Sulamani would have a good chance,” he added. “Tycoon would probably have been closer in the King George with a clear run and it looks like being a good race. The biggest worry for us though is the ground.”
Frankie Dettori will be on Sulamani in the big race while Kerrin McEvoy will partner 200-1 outsider Millstreet.
McEvoy was on board Sulamani when he was third behind Doyen in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and the Australian is expecting a big performance.
“He always been quite a lean-looking character, it’s not until you get on his back and get over his neck that he starts to feel like a proper racehorse,” McEvoy told Attheraces. “As far as a jockeys’ point of view, he feels like a nice horse and rides like a nice horse.
“He can be a bit quirky but his best races have been on rain-affected ground and he’ll get that at York. Everyone is pretty confident that he will run a great race.”
Godolphin’s racing manager Simon Crisford is also hoping the ease in the ground will also aid the five-year-old’s cause.
“Conditions are in his favour and the horse is in very good form since the King George. We’re hoping that this ground will very much work to his advantage.” he told www.godolphin.com.
If Sulamani can win today’s Group One event he will pick up the British Horseracing Board’s £100,000 Middle Distance Championship.
The title is determined by points picked up for finishing in the top six in races that make up the BHB Summer Triple Crown series and victory today would earn Sulamani the 10 points he needs to overhaul his stablemate Doyen and Clive Brittain’s Warsan at the top of the table.
If the son of Hernando does not win on the Knavesmire, Doyen will take the bonus.
