Racing
2020 flat season: 5 English horses to follow
With an eye on the resumption of the racing season in the near future (fingers crossed), Steven Dowler gives us his five English trained horses to follow in the 2020 flat season.
Five English horses to follow in the 2020 flat season
PINATUBO
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Form: 111111-
It remains debatable whether Pintatubo has improved from two-to-three but, regardless, he must be a horse to follow in the upcoming campaign.
Pinatubo is six from six with two group one victories to his name. He was officially rated last season as the best European juvenile horse since 1994, given an allotted rating of 124, which is higher than the legendary Frankel managed as a two-year-old.
The Charlie Appleby-trained son of Sharmadal has long been favourite for both the 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby since winning the Dewhurst back in October 2019, in which he encountered soft ground for the first time. However, he passed the test with flying colours. Even so, Godolphin’s brilliant colt will have to improve another 12lb to match the monster Frankel’s rating on turf.
Nevertheless, Pinatubo has every chance of achieving eminence in the 2020 flat division, especially with the way he dominated everything in his flawless campaign last season. It is clear to see that big things are well and truly ahead for Pinatubo, who will carry one of the biggest reputations to grace the flat turf in the last 25 years.
PIERRE LAPIN
Trainer: Roger Varian
Form: 11-
Andrea Atzeni has ridden some brilliant English horses over the years but the way he has talked up Pierre Lapin is worth taking into consideration in the 2020 flat season. He has already expressed that he doesn’t just ‘think’ that Pierre Lapin will develop into a top-class sprinter but is ‘expecting’ the son of Capella Sansevero to do so.
Pierre Lapin showed a lot of greenness on both starts last campaign but got the job done on both occasions, with the latter of those wins coming in a group two where he was electric at the finish. Pierre Lapin is a half-brother to the high-class sprinter Harry Angel so his pedigree is very strong and, with another season to fill into his frame, there is a bright chance this promising and very highly regarded youngster can take high ranks for Roger Varian.
LOGICIAN
Trainer: John Gosden
Form: 11111-
Logician is another English star to make the 2020 flat season list. Although unraced as a two-year-old in 2018, he certainly made up for lost time with a fantastic 2019 campaign, establishing himself as a high-class performer and winning five of his five starts to remain unbeaten. It concluded with a striking success in the group one St Leger at Doncaster against a top-class field.
It was concerning to hear that Logician suffered an infection over the winter but reportedly he is back to his best and catching up on missed work. There is definitely more improvement to come from Logician this season and I can’t see his planned drop back in trip doing him any harm. Despite being fragile, Logician is a very talented horse who has the potential and class to become a big name in the sport.
GHAIYYATH
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Form: 311/1/13101-
Charlie Appleby and Godolphin have another high-class performer to go to war with in the 2020 flat season, in the shape of the five-year-old Ghaiyyath. Although Ghaiyyath is a hard horse to train, which is why he has been limited to no more than six starts since 2017, there is no doubting the ability he has based on what we have seen him do when on top form.
You know exactly what you are going to get with Ghaiyyath and that is to go hard from the front and put the rest of the field to the sword.
One word to describe Ghaiyyath is unique as there aren’t many group one horses that can go like a rocket from the out-set, maintain that gallop throughout and towards the backend of a race.
The key to Ghaiyyath’s dominant achievements is good ground, because four occasions on that going description have yielded four victories by a cumulative winning total of 24 lengths, slaughtering the opposition with authority every time.
One of those victories came in the group one German Derby which he won by 14 lengths whilst eased down. He could have easily broken the track record if he hit full stride up the home straight. Ghaiyyath then added another huge triumph to his CV in a group three at Meydan, taking top honours by eight and half lengths and breaking the track record in the process.
On the back of that scintillating display of sheer power and domination, Ghaiyyath was soon made favourite for the Dubai Sheema Classic. Unfortunately, the Dubai World Cup meeting has now been cancelled, leaving us with questions over when we will see him next. Even so, if we do see him back in England on good ground in the 2020 flat season, I can assure you we will be seeing another sensational performance from the beast, Ghaiyyath.
STRADIVARIUS
Trainer: John Gosden
Form: 11111/111112-
Stradivarius has developed into possibly the greatest stayer since Yeats over the last two years and, although his ten race unbeaten record was finally ended last time, I do think there this high-class stayer has ta least one more year to continue stamping his class on good horses for being such a consistent and admirable servant to connections.
The five-time group one winner was unfortunate to be run down close to home in the long distance cup last time out, having showed his trademark turn of foot to scoot clear of the field. However, the petrol gauge was running on empty towards the finish and Kew Gardens nailed him.
Despite suffering that defeat, I still feel as though Stradivarius is the one to beat in the stayers division in the 2020 flat season and is definitely worth following because he is sure to win plenty more group one races.
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