ROSEBERY HANDICAP
Saturday 6th April, 2:40pm
Old Harrovian @ 3/1
Intinso @ 4/1
Chillingham @ 7/1
Youthful King @ 9/1
view odds
*prices correct at time of writing.
RACE
Named after the 1890s prime minister Lord Rosebery, whose silks were carried to victory in both stagings of the Derby that took place during his brief time in office (talk about a different horse racing era!), the £100,000 Rosebery Handicap (2-40) is amongst Kempton’s most established flat prizes. Another competitive field is due to face the near eleven-furlong examination on the polytrack.
MARKET
There are some powerful operations represented, and the Gosdens saddle recent winner Intinso, a keen-going sort which has been given time and showed the benefit of a gelding operation when dancing away with a handicap, over marginally further, at Wolverhampton in mid-March. The Ian Williams-trained pair, Dream Harder and Duc De Kent, filled the third and fifth spots that day, and both did enough to indicate further visits to the winners’ enclosure aren’t faraway.
The Andrew Balding team thrives at Kempton and has its runners in good order, so Old Harrovian will have plenty of supporters especially as he’s unbeaten on AW surfaces and fitted with a tongue-tie for his first handicap and first race since a solid Group Three effort in May.
Chillingham missed out when last weekend’s Musselburgh fixture was rained off; the form of his narrowly-beaten second over one-mile and three-quarters at Wolverhampton in November has worked out tremendously well, and the shorter distance does perhaps raise questions.
Two others to note are Captain Wierzba and Cannon Rock. Captain Wierzba has run just three times since his rider was infamously elbowed out of the saddle by Christophe Soumillon in France in September 2022 and he didn’t show a lot last year, but on the plus side he’s bred to improve with age. Cannon Rock, a relatively cheaply-bought Godolphin reject, defied a penalty to win in some style on debut for the upwardly mobile James Owen.
THE WINNER
Intinso put in a really striking performance at Wolverhampton – what do you like in the Rosebery?
CORNELIUS’ QUARTET
Joseph O’Brien has his first runner of the year in Britain when Adelaise, a filly that has run to a high level in defeat, lines up in the Listed race (2-05) on a track where she lost her maiden status like a horse with a decent future when trained by Martyn Meade. William Buick rides.
The Queen’s Prize (3-15) retains its usual puzzle of puzzle status with amongst the most intriguing runners the regally-bred Spirit Mixer (Frankel – Arabian Queen), having only his third race in twenty-one months and well-weighted at best.
The new association of Roger Varian and James Doyle is already making its mark and course and distance winner Azure Angel (4-55) went into many trackers after a narrow but decisive success at Newcastle.
At The Curragh (2-55), a year on from bursting into the Derby picture with a big-odds victory in the Ballysax at Leopardstown, White Birchhas his favoured conditions for the start of a four-year-old campaign that could prove – if like that of his dad Ulysses – extra lucrative.
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