King of Stats: Don’t expect The Fugue to have an Eclipse ‘mare
Published:Only two mares have been victorious in the 128-year history of the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown but there’s one entrant in this year’s renewal who can buck that trend.
The Fugue is the contender in question with John Gosden’s classy five-year-old more than ready to take on the top-class field that’s been assembled.
Can the impressive Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner emulate the likes of 1985 victor Pebbles or 1992’s heroine Kooyonga?
Ignore 2013’s last-placed effort. The Fugue is ready to have more fun in the sun in Surrey.
– Nine of the last 10 winners had run in the previous 30 days leading up to the race. That rules only Trading Leather out of the equation then?
– All of the last 10 victors had won a Group 1 before. Five of this year’s entrants HAVEN’T been successful at the highest level, including Kieran Fallon’s mount, True Story.
– Six out of the last 10 Eclipse winners were making their first course start. The likes of Night of Thunder, Verrazano and Kingston Hill will all be making their Sandown debuts.
– Let’s get down to business, shall we? Five of the previous 10 winners ran in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes with last year’s hero Al Kazeem successful at Royal Ascot before launching an Eclipse assault. The Fugue looks set to follow in those footsteps.
– All 10 winners since 2004 came from the first four in the betting with no champion going off at bigger than 8/1. Aidan O’Brien’s Dewhurst Stakes winner War Command just about makes the cut at his current price.
– Who’s your favourite? Market leaders have supplied four of the previous five Eclipse winners. The Fugue heads the list and rightly so.
Our pick: The Fugue
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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