always prominent, led well over 1f out, driven out
keen, chased leaders, ridden 2f out, soon weakened
dwelt, held up towards rear, not troubled leaders
raced mid-division, pushed along and outpaced halfway, soon lost place, headway and edged right inside final furlong, stayed on close home
keen, held up mid-division, ridden 2f out, soon no impression
held up towards rear, headway to chase winner over 1f out, no impression inside final furlong
tracked leader, ridden and led briefly 2f out, weakened inside final furlong
keen in touch, ridden 2f out, stayed on same pace
This may develop into another classic scrap between Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon as they team up with Satchem and Iceman respectively - with the fist named narrowly holding the edge on form going into the race. The unbeaten Ad Valorem, as the better fancied of the two Aidan O'Brien-trained runners, is also very much respected and should be capable of making an impact as things unfold. Quite whether he has natural ability to hold his own at this level remains to be seen, but with improvement needed as he steps up in class, a place in the frame looks to be the best his connections can hope for today. The same can be said of Rebuttal, who is capable but is far from the finished article yet. He will get better with time and will be a very interesting contender if he stays in training next year. David Loder also looks to have a useful type in Dramaticus, who won his maiden at Haydock in comfortable fashion a week ago. This is much tougher and he may find a few too good today. Iceman, winner of the Coventry Stakes, has done very little wrong in his races so far. He ran a cracker of a race under a 5lb penalty when just touched off in the Champagne Stakes and will be very hard to beat with a similar effort here. However, Satchem proved that he is a class act when winning a Group Three under Fallon at Kempton at the start of this month and the champion jockey may be left to rue the switch to his John Gosden-trained partner if Dettori gets only a similar performance out of the Inchinor colt today.
