Bin Suroor: Shamardal is ready
Saeed Bin Suroor is confident Shamardal is “100%” ready for Saturday’s titanic showdown with Motivator in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes.
The two pre-eminent colts of the Classic generation head the betting on the all-aged showpiece, with runaway Epsom Derby winner Motivator best-priced at 5-6 with the sponsors.wa102be
Shamardal is available at 9-4, having taken the French equivalent sandwiched between victories in the French Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes at the Royal meeting.
Suroor told At The Races on Thursday: “The horse came from York in good form and worked yesterday. Today he is fine and is ready to run.
“It is a very tough race, but he has won three Group Ones (this season) and we are looking forward to it. It will be very hard to win, but our horse is top class and 100% ready for it.”
Next best is the Luca Cumani-trained Starcraft, who was third in the Queen Anne on his first run since arriving from Australia.
Philip Robinson, who replaces Darryll Holland, sat on Starcraft for the first time on Wednesday and was very taken with the five-year-old.
“I rode him yesterday morning and I was very impressed with him,” he said.
“You can always tell a good horse when you sit on one and he definitely gave me that feel. He has got an engine there, he’s a big, powerful, strong horse and the first thing I said to Mr Cumani when I got off him was ‘I’m impressed’.
“It’s only the real good ones that impress me and he felt like one of them.”
The giant chestnut won Group One races over a variety of distances Down Under and was finishing well at the end of the Queen Anne, getting within two lengths of Valixir over a possibly inadequate mile trip.
Robinson continued: “His first run at Royal Ascot at York, I thought was a great show and I would imagine he has come on from it.
“He did all his best work towards the end of the race and I think the extra furlong or two here will be right up his street.
“I’m obviously going to hope that the three-year-olds are not up to the older horses, but we will find out on Saturday if that is the case or not.
“Motivator is incredibly good and won like a superior horse, but how good he is, we will find out when he meets the older horses.”
The major absentee of the eight declared was the Aidan O’Brien-trained Powerscourt, fifth in last year’s renewal and around a 14-1 shot in the ante-post market.
