Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster

today is the last big raceday of the English flat season and the Group One Racing Post Trophy over a mile for 2yo´ s at 15.55 CET is the final British group race of the year. This event is always won by a top class performer and 3 winners this century have gone on to take the following year´s Derby at Epsom. Looking further back we find such outstanding winners as subsequent Arc winner Vaguely Noble and the filly Noblesse who won the Oaks by 10 lengths in 1963. Noblesse was trained by Paddy Prendergast and his son Kevin now sends over Dunboyne Express (Declan McDonogh), who spearheads a very strong Irish challenge. Dunboyne Express was an imprssive winner of his two runners in the summer, and then suffered a setback, but is reportely back in top form. His shrewd trainer sends very few runners to Britain and this one must certainly be taken very seriously. However Casamento (Mike Halford/ Frankie Dettori) could be the Irish number one today. He has done nothing wrong so far a nd will be a rare British runner in the colours of Sheikh Mohammed. The other Irish runners are both trained by Aidan O´ Brien - Master of Hounds, the mount of stable jockey Johnny Murtagh, and Seville (Colm O´Donoghue). Seville is German-bred, although there is nothing German in his pedigree. We do not fancy the O´Brien runners so much, but it will not be surprising to see most of the prize-money crossing the Irish Sea.
The British defence is headed by the unbeaten Titus Mills (Brian Meehan/ Kieren Fallon) and Native Khan (Ed Dunlop/ Paul Hanagan), who left out the Dewhurst last week to wait for this. Both should go well, but we also like the chances of Clive Brittain´s Zaidan (Seb Sanders). He was not right when last of 4 last time, but his previous effort when winning at Royal Ascot was pretty smart. Clive is fanous for winning big races at fancy prices, and at 25-1 Zaidan looks an interesting each-way bet.
The main supporting feature at Doncaster is the listed race for 2yo´s over 6 furlongs at 15.25. Galtymore Lad (Mick Channon/ Fallon) looks the logical choice here - he was twice runner-up to the Group One winner Wootton Bassett, but we also expect big run from Godolphin´s Signs in the Sand (Saeed bin Suroor/ Dettori), who is out of the German mare Gonfilia.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Harry Patch - Cheveton - Waffle
2. Race: Galtymore Lad - Cape To Rio - Signs In The Sand
3. Race: Casamento - Dunboyne Express - Seville
4. Race: Music Maestro - White Dart - Junket
5. Race: Ashram - Flambeau - City Style
6. Race: Alazan - Seven Summits - Red Jade
7. Race: Unex El Greco - Jaaryah - Honeymead