Weekend Preview: A meaningful weekend, a meaningless question

Aidan O'Brien: yet to complete the set

It's an action-packed Saturday, and Jamie Lynch looks at the four big races, with a trivia river running through it...

Of the 32 Group 1 races in Britain, can you name the five that Aidan O'Brien hasn't yet won?

One, inevitably this weekend, which triggered the trivia, is the Cheveley Park Stakes. It's not just that he hasn't won it, he's rarely tried to, relatively speaking, and this will be the fourth year in the last six that O'Brien has gone unrepresented in the Cheveley Park.

Surprising in some ways, but then again, as was pointed out by a sharper mind than mine, by this time O'Brien's better two-year-old fillies have already been moved up in trip, more often than not for the Moyglare (though the two darts he threw at it this year missed the board), and generally sprinters perhaps don't fit the Ballydoyle bill - which is a pointer to two of the remaining four answers to the original question.

With the winners of the Lowther, the Princess Margaret, the Cherry Hinton and the Queen Mary, the field includes the best sprinting two-year-old fillies around, but interestingly none of Rosdhu Queen, Maureen, Sendmylovetorose or Ceiling Kitty are near the rating it normally takes to win a Cheveley Park, which says something of the crop as a whole, as well as giving hope to those taking the theoretical jump in class, chiefly The Gold Cheongsam and Winning Express, both of whom have achieved almost as much in winning their races as the 'recognised' fillies have in winning the 'recognised' races.

If Winning Express was trained by Hannon or Gosden, but obviously not O'Brien, then I suspect she'd be trading at shorter odds, as is justified by her form. Two from two and impressive both times, the Salisbury listed race - and related good timefigure - was to some extent teed up for her courtesy of (bat out of) El Manati, who went way too fast, but Winning Express was herself going away from all the others who'd been equally serviced, including second-home Jadanna, a useful yardstick to the juvenile form, not beaten far in the Queen Mary and Cherry Hinton.

Despite appearing on Frankel's CV, the Royal Lodge isn't a Group 1, which is a shame for O'Brien as he's won it five times. He's back again this year with Afonso de Sousa, whose form doesn't yet match his apparent reputation, put in his place in the Acomb last time by Dundonnell and Steeler. Aaahhh, Steeler. Even the poorest of mathematicians, or the busiest of mathematics teachers, has been able to calculate that Steeler + eight furlongs = big improvement. On Timeform ratings, he's the best of these as things stand, on his seven-furlong form, not only the Acomb but also his latest late-surging success in a listed race at Goodwood, out of which, remarkably, every single one of the four horses he beat won their next start.

Yes, there's the unbeaten Fantastic Moon and the nearly-unbeaten Al Waab, who looks better still now after Havana Gold's decisive win in a Group 3 at Newmarket on Thursday, but if Steeler does what we at Timeform think he'll do for the chance to tackle a mile, and a mile with an uphill finish at that, then he'll be very hard to beat; albeit after looking very easy to beat at halfway when Fallon is pushing and shoving. Take note, in-running players.

The King's Stand and the Sprint Cup. They're the two sprints I was hinting at earlier, amongst those missing from O'Brien's collection. And then there were two to think of. One is a more recent Group 1, upgraded only in 2004, and it's a race that generally acts as a guide to another of the Group 1 event on Saturday...

Elusive Kate and Siyouma have shown their worth on their only start in Britain this year (a-hem), otherwise doing equally good work in France; in fact, this year's renewal of the Sun Chariot might as well be staged in France, as the most interesting runner by far was born in France, raised in France and, up to this point, raced in France, namely Beauty Parlour. The winner of the 1000 Guineas (beat up Up by a length), before going down narrowly when hot favourite for the Oaks, Beauty Parlour was subsequently transferred from Elie Lellouche to Sir Henry Cecil, and here she is, at last, making her somewhat belated debut on the British catwalk.

In form terms she's not quite up there with new-stablemate Chachamaidee let alone Elusive Kate, but whereas we know exactly where we stand with that pair, there's no telling yet just how good Beauty Parlour may be. Better than she's shown is the strong suspicion.

Lastly, or second-lastly bar the big reveal, a word on the Cambridgeshire. Christ.

Mijhaar is my first pick, Start Right my second. I'm usually against Mijhaar, for all the reasons that make him tailor-made for a Cambridgeshire. He's kinky, he's difficult, he's headstrong, he's tripless, but he's also got loads of ability, some of it still untapped even now, and the Cambridgeshire is just the sort of one-off scenario that could and should stimulate a tricky-but-talented customer like Mijhaar.
Start Right is much like Mijhaar, only more temperamental and less likeable, but the same theory applies, and he's a much bigger price.

So, back to the trivia, which has now become trivial. O'Brien's missing jigsaw pieces. We gave you the Cheveley Park for starters, then fell upon the King's Stand and Sprint Cup, and hopefully you stumbled across the Falmouth. The last one is perhaps surprising. The Champion Stakes. He's peculiarly never won it. And one thing is absolutely certain: he won't be winning it this year, either.

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