RACING NEWS ROUND-UP:FAME AND Glory is a clear favourite to wind up his classic year with another Group One victory in Saturday's Emirates Champion Stakes at Newmarket. Aidan O'Brien's Irish Derby winner is one of 17 remaining in the 10-furlong highlight which is a rare top-flight blank in the champion trainer's big-race CV.
Fame And Glory is joined in the Champion Stakes by his stable companions Set Sail and Grand Ducal, who also ran in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe nine days ago, a race in which Fame And Glory finished sixth behind his old rival Sea The Stars.
“Things didn’t work out for him in the Arc and that’s just the way it goes sometimes,” O’Brien said. “He has come out of the race well and Saturday is the plan.”
Fame And Glory was also a Group One winner as a juvenile in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud and has finished runner-up twice to Sea The Stars this year, in the Epsom Derby and the Irish Champion Stakes.
William Hill have installed the Ballydoyle star as a 5 to 4 favourite for this weekend, and a spokesperson said: “Fame And Glory’s form is linked with the best of the classic generation and if he is in the same shape there is little in the race to deny the Ballydoyle horse.”
The English and Irish Oaks winner Sariska is a 4 to 1 second-best, while the €32,000 supplementary entry Mawatheeq is rated a 7 to 1 shot.
Jim Bolger brought off a notable Champions day double in 2008 with New Approach landing the big race and Intense Focus completing a Dewhurst Stakes hat-trick for the Co Carlow-based trainer. Teofilo (2006) and New Approach (2007) also make up Bolger’s remarkable Dewhurst record and he has already stated that he rates Chabal his best ever hope for the race.
The National Stakes runner-up is joined by his stable companions Book Of Numbers and Free Judgement in a 23-strong entry after yesterday’s forfeit stage.
Steinbeck leads a six-strong entry from Ballydoyle, but the Irish raiding party face a major task against a home team headed by Brian Meehan’s Prix Morny winner Arcano. Dick Turpin, a flop when favourite for the Prix Jean Luc Lagadere at Longchamp, is also an intended starter, according to trainer Richard Hannon.
A potentially mouth-watering steeplechase clash between the top-class hurdlers Sizing Europe and Harchibald looks like it could take place at Punchestown on Thursday in the Grade Three Buck House Novice Chase.
The 2008 AIG winner Sizing Europe is already a winner over fences at the Co Kildare track, but Harchibald could make his fencing debut in the two-mile, two-furlong event.
“We are very happy with the way he has jumped at home. I actually thought he might be too sharp for fences but he seems good,” said his trainer Noel Meade.
“It looks like being a very hot race, but it is not easy to find a race for him. Punchestown is a nice track and it looks like being nice ground so it is quite possible he will go there,” he added.
Harchibald is a five-time Grade One winner over hurdles.
Sizing Europe looked poised to win the 2008 Champion Hurdle but was all but pulled up after a mistake at the second-last flight resulted in back muscle problems.
Thursday’s other highlight is the Grade Three Chase where the 2006 Gold Cup hero War Of Attrition could attempt to maintain his good record in the race.
Also among the eight horses left in the three-mile event is the Welsh National winner Notre Pere.
William Hill bet Champion Stakes: 5-4 Fame And Glory, 4 Sariska, 7 Mawatheeq, 8 Never On Sunday, Pipedreamer, 10 Twice Over, 12 Doctor Fremantle, 16 Crystal Capella, 20 Alpine Rose, 25 Bar.
