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Sun Met favourite Legal Eagle may be ridden from further back in Saturday’s Kenilworth R5 million spectacular over 2000m in his bid to go one better than last year.
Twelve months ago, when he started at 16-10, he sat a close second and led 300m out only to have no answer when Smart Call came at him.
Indeed the filly drew right away in the closing stages.
When he won the Queen’s Plate earlier this month Legal Eagle was also ridden close-up, sitting third behind the pace-setting Midnite Zone and Captain America before going on over a furlong out.
However racing manager Derek Brugman said: “He has shown in his last two races that he could do with some cover and I would be happy for him to follow the better drawn horses.
“He is versatile and has a great turn of foot. I also think he is better over Saturday’s ten furlongs than he is over a mile.”
The running of Captain America – closer to Legal Eagle in last year’s Met than he was in the Queen’s Plate last season and this – might suggest otherwise but Anton Marcus, the man best-placed to know, disagrees.
“I will leave that to the analysts and statisticians,” he said before adding that he thinks the gelding is equally as good at 2000m as he is over a 1600m.
Second favourite Marinaresco, less than half a length behind Legal Eagle in the Green Point in December, had some of the gloss knocked off his reputation when he struggled from a wide draw in the Queen’s Plate and was beaten more than three lengths into fourth.
Rider Grant van Niekerk shoulders some of the blame, saying: “I probably rode a bit of a bad race that day. But that’s the nature of the game – you ride some good races and some bad ones – and I make him a big runner on Saturday.”
The 25-year-old, who will be riding in his sixth Met, has yet to partner a horse in the race shorter than 25-1 but has twice finished third.
He warmed up with a four-timer on Saturday and points out that he should be added to the illustrious group who have ridden six winners on the same card.
He had eight rides on Kenilworth’s nine-race programme on July 12 2014 and won on six of them including the Winter Juvenile Stakes on Act Of War.
Frankie Dettori’s presence at the meeting is due to Investec boss Bernard Kantor.
“Dettori is an ambassador for Investec and Bernard rang us to ask if we had anything good that we would like him to ride. If we hadn’t, he would rather not ride," said Brugman.
“I hope he has a winner and maybe he can do it on The Conglomerate in the Met although I feel the horse is a handicapper and that it will be tough for him taking on the top horses.”
Dettori was originally declared for Table Bay (AUS) in the R1m, Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby (2000m) but, intriguingly, he has since been switched to Edict Of Nantes and Marcus moves from the Brett Crawford-trained runner to Table Bay.
Both are Mayfair Speculators horses. Table Bay made the running when third in last month’s Cape Guineas but it seems likely that connections will revert to the original plan A and opt to get a lead from stable companion Newlands
Dettori has also been booked by Sean Tarry for two big race mounts – Vortex Star in the R1m, Kuda Sprint (1200m) and French Legend in the R500,000m CTS Sprint (1200m). His other rides are the Cape Fillies Guineas winner Just Sensual in the R500,000, CTS Mile (1600m) and the Dennis Drier-trained Seventh Plain in the R1m, Grade 1 Betting World Cape Flying Championship (1000m).
I other news the Mike Robinson-trained Kapteinspandieseile, who cost punters dear when only fifth at 6-10 at Kenilworth last Wednesday, has been found to have a distended off-fore fetlock.
