Champagne Stakes Tips: A Monumental Winner In Store
The final Classic of the British Flat racing season takes place on Saturday.
Doncaster’s St Leger is a prestigious event, while the opening race on the card is the Group 2 Champagne Stakes.
Open to two-year-olds only, Chaldean won this 7f event in 2022 and went on to take Classic glory in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket the following season.
Some very smart horses have won this race over the years and a field of six has been declared for this year’s renewal.
It looks well set to be another fascinating race so we’ve taken a close look at the race and assessed the chances of the six runners. We’ve also picked out a 20/1 selection which could be more than a little overpriced.
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Recent trends suggest that Richard Hannon is the man to follow here, having won three of the last 10 renewals. He isn’t represented this year however but John Gosden won in 2018 with Too Darn Hot and he and Thady are represented by Chancellor here.
The thrice-raced son of Kingman was an impressive winner on debut at Doncaster and he pulled well clear to win by almost five-lengths, despite being inconvenienced at the start and therefore racing further back than would be ideal.
Third in Listed company after that, he bolted up once again in a course and distance novice last month. He should be a good deal wiser this time around and it’s no surprise that he’s popular in the market.
Richard Spencer’s Righthere Rightnow made his debut in a 7f maiden at Newmarket and absolutely destroyed his rivals, going on to score by five-lengths.
He was plenty keen enough on the day but still had enough fuel to burn them off from the front. This horse really could be anything and deserves a shot at this level.
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Wolf Of Badenoch won over course and distance on debut and backed that up with a good second in the Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. That form puts him right in this and a similar effort will surely lead to a big run.
George Scott runs Bay City Roller who has won both of his starts by narrow margins but he probably has a bit to find on the evidence we have to consider. Aftermath was a well beaten second on debut at Newbury and would need to find plenty in order to feature here.
Aidan O’Brien’s other runner is MONUMENTAL and he could be the one to side with in this very open race however. The son of Kingman struggled behind very useful stablemate Henri Matisse on debut but improved to finish second to another very smart stablemate Ides Of March at the Curragh next time.
Going up to 7f at Gowran Park next time, he made no mistake and pulled nicely clear to win by a comfortable margin. O’Brien’s colt appears to be progressing with every run and his profile suggests that further improvement could well be on the cards.
His trainer’s record in the race isn’t amazing but Monumental looks capable of providing him with his first Champagne Stakes winner since Seahenge in 2017.