The final Group 1 of the British Flat season takes place at Doncaster on Saturday, with 17 horses entered for the William Hill Futurity Trophy.
The mile contest often provides clues to a future Derby winner, given its tendency to be an attritional test of stamina at this stage of the season, and six horses since 1986 – Reference Point, High Chaparral, Motivator, Authorized, Camelot and Auguste Rodin – have completed the double.
Aidan O’Brien is unsurprisingly the leading trainer in the race with 12 winners since 1997, and Ballydoyle have entered 11 in their bid to cement yet another British champion trainer title.
Coolmore entries
Noble Exhibit heads the betting following his comfortable success in the Beresford Stakes, and he bids to emulate stablemates Hawk Mountain, Luxembourg, Saxon Warrior, Casamento, St Nicholas Abbey and Saratoga Springs in landing the Curragh/Doncaster double.
Giant Sequoia took the Irish Futurity Stakes in good style in August, a race which has also thrown up winners of the British equivalent, but he came unstuck on his first foray into Group 1 company in the National Stakes. He looked talented prior to that and can be forgiven given the yard was under a cloud, and he’s bred to be smart, out of the yard’s 2019 Oaks runner-up.
Haffner won the Acomb Stakes at York in August, but that didn’t look like the strongest of renewals, and he was also found out in the National Stakes. However, he proved it was no fluke when winning the Royal Lodge Stakes, and the Justify colt is from the family of Order Of St George, a smart stayer for connections and the 2016 Ascot Gold Cup winner.
Wall Street was also entered despite only racing on Saturday, when a half-length winner of the Eyrefield Stakes. That was a commanding performance that took his record to two from two, in a race won last year by the stable’s Derby winner Christmas Day, but this may come too soon.
Capability Brown also won on the same card as Wall Street, beating the 105-rated Goffs Million winner Trean and Windsor Castle winner King Of Cloughlan. He’s a half-brother to Saxon Warrior, who won this race in 2017, but it’s not the yard’s modus operandi to back up a week later for this.
Choctaw Nation, Drumbeat, Sergei Diaghilev, Man’s Best Friend, Shakespeare and Albany County also represent the Aidan O’Brien yard.
British contingent
Burning Up couldn’t emulate the owner’s Bow Echo in making it three from three in the Royal Lodge, but he didn’t appear to handle the track and still finished well for second behind Haffner. That was still an impressive performance and a marked improvement on his novice wins, and he can fare well with that experience in Graded company behind him.
Breacher – William Muir has been very vocal about the ability he believes Breacher has, and his Cracksman colt hasn’t let him down despite being beaten on his last two starts. He looked smart when winning on debut at Salisbury, and improved on that when third in the Solario Stakes. He was then third to Desert Castle here in the Champagne Stakes, and that horse was beaten just a neck in the Dewhurst, so this step up in trip can suit.
Al Hudaiba is yet to mentally furnish, but his innate talent is evidently there. He’s been an awkward ride for those on top, including unseating Tom Marquand at Yarmouth, but he’s still won a Newmarket Group 2 and took a Woodbine Grade 1 despite again drifting off a true line. Charlie Appleby has won this just once, but if he can keep a lid on Al Hudaiba, he could take a big step forward.
First Law lost his unbeaten record when two lengths behind Haffner in the Royal Lodge, but he was another who seemingly failed to handle the Newmarket undulations. Prior to that he justified favouritism on both occasions, latterly beating the 101-rated Rocket Boy in the Ascendant Stakes, which has historically thrown up some talented sorts.
Andrew Balding has won this twice since 2014, with Elm Park and Kameko, and fields just the one runner in his bid to wrest the British champion trainer title from Aidan O’Brien. Gran Dia only made his debut at the start of the month, but it was a winning one, and a rare one for a yard whose two-year-olds generally come on for the run. He’s a well-related son of Lope De Vega and cannot be discounted.
Alfred Wallace completes the entries, and while he has won three times already this season, this would be his ninth start since May and the suspicion is he may be over the top by now, for all he’s bred to appreciate the mile (his dam won the 2021 Falmouth Stakes).