RAIL LINK ON AN UPWARD ARC
The Sportsman - Geoff Lester
It is 20 years since Prince Khalid Abdullah won the Arc with
Dancing Brave, but the Juddmonte team might have found another
likely lad for Europe's middle-distance championship in Rail Link,
who was an impressive winner of last week’s Grand Prix de
Paris.
“Last Friday was one of those special days which you need to
savour,” reflected Lord Grimthorpe, Abdullah’s racing manager.
“To have four winners at Longchamp on Bastille Day – including a
Group 1, a Group 2 and a Listed race-was absolutely magical, and on
which none of us will ever forget.”
Star of the celebrated quartet was Rail Link, who, having won
his Group 3, found the jump in class to the penthouse no problem
and sailed home an easy winner from Red Rocks.
Grimthorpe added “Rail Link clocked a good time and he quickened
up really well to beat a horse who had only just been pipped a neck
in the King Edward VII St at Royal Ascot, so it looks decent
form.”
Saumarez, Subotica and Peintre Celebre all took this race en
route to winning an Arc, but acknowledging that Rail Link is
probably still only 3rd in the pecking order at Andre Fabre’s
stable behind Hurricane Run and Shirocco-Grimthorpe conceded that
“our fellow needs to improve again”.
He said “ Rail Link unshipped his jockey when colliding with a
rail on his debut and then found the soft ground against him in his
next race, but since then he has not stopped progressing, and like
so many of the Dansili progeny, he loves this summer ground.
“However, now he has to take on the older horses, which is the
acid test, and that will determine whether he turns up on the first
Sunday in October.”
Price Tag, so disappointing in the Coronation St at Ascot, might
attempt to redeem her tarnished reputation in the Prix d’Astarte at
Deauville.
Grimthorpe said “Nothing came to light following Price Tag’s
below-par run at Ascot, where I thought she would win. It might
have been a combination of factors – she had a poor draw, got
shuffled back early on and would have needed to be an exceptional
filly to have won from where she came from on the home turn."
Date: 17 July 2006