london // The Grey Gatsby will try to atone for his agonising defeat at Royal Ascot with the sort of quixotic mission that Jay Gatsby is known for in the F Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby.
Under the weight-for-age scale, The Grey Gatsby – the horse – must concede nearly five kilograms in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park on Saturday to Golden Horn, who was so impressive when winning the Derby at Epsom a month ago.
Last year, The Grey Gatsby proved that he had the right credentials to defeat a Derby winner when he denied Australia in a thumping Irish Champion Stakes, but since then victory has only ever been tantalisingly out of reach.
Solow proved too hot to handle in the Dubai Turf at Meydan in March before The Grey Gatsby struggled to deal with a rejuvenated Al Kazeem in the Tattersalls Gold Cup in Ireland.
At the royal meeting three weeks ago, he showed he can still live with the best when he and Jamie Spencer were just denied by Free Eagle and Pat Smullen in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes.
Frankie Dettori had locked Spencer in on the rail on Western Hymn and, by the time Spencer found the key to his prison cell, Free Eagle was gone.
With Dettori now on Golden Horn and James Doyle to ride Western Hymn, one could forgive Spencer at the very least a wry smile should he trump Dettori on Saturday afternoon.
“I wouldn’t change anything I did that day,” Spencer said this week.
“Staying on the fence on the round course (at Royal Ascot) can make it hard to get out, so I moved out early and tracked Pat Smullen on Free Eagle.
“The problem was that Frankie came three wide on Western Hymn and had me in a pocket. I couldn’t have factored that in.”
What The Grey Gatsby has in his favour is that, after three races this season, he is in peak shape.
Trainer Kevin Ryan revealed after the defeat at Ascot that the trip to Dubai was one that would assist in getting his charge ready for the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. The Grey Gatsby had a break on his return, and the run in Ireland was used similarly as a springboard.
“I knew he was in great shape, and I didn’t hide the fact that when we ran him in Ireland it was a prep run for this meeting,” Ryan said.
“That might sound stupid given it was a Group 1 race, but he has a lot of races ahead and I was quietly confident he would put up a big show.”
With Aidan O’Brien’s Cougar Mountain and the outsider Tullius the only remaining runners in the small but select field for the Group 1 race, it is anybody’s guess where the pace will come from.
None of the five challengers are used to running from the front, something Ryan laments.
“It’s unfortunate we don’t have a pacemaker for him, which is what he needs,” he said.
“If he was owned by one of the big firms, he would have a pacemaker to ensure an end-to-end gallop.”
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