Sandown Coral Eclipse Day – CopyBet

Andrew Balding has a strong hand in the Coral Distaff, a Listed race for three-year-old fillies, with two of the top three in the market, including BLUE BOLT, who looked a potential Group performer when defying a penalty in novice company in ready fashion at Newbury last month.

The daughter of Blue Point, who is owned by Juddmonte and ridden by Colin Keane, failed to run to expectations when odds-on over 7f at Southwell on her debut, but she’s thrived on turf since, scoring by a wide margin upped to a mile at Windsor and following up in what looked a potentially warm race at Newbury.

She won with a lot more authority than the bare margin suggests and has plenty in her favour at the weights. Balding has won this race in recent seasons, including with Blonde Me, who went on to win multiple races at Group 2 level.

John and Thady Gosden’s Sandringham Stakes runner-up, Cajole, might give her most to think about.

Clive Cox has his string in good order at present and the Group 3 Coral Charge should provide his KERDOS with an excellent opportunity of a first win of the season.

The five-year-old has been keeping good company for the last year and a bit, repeatedly running to a high level in defeat, barring one lacklustre effort over 6f at York on her reappearance. A 5f specialist, he won last season’s Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock and backed it up with a string of solid performances against the best sprinters around.

He was close to his best when fifth of 20 in the Group 2 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, despite briefly getting loose beforehand. He’ll have no excuses on the current good ground, but there’s the potential for rain and any easing of conditions would be a big plus to his chances.

Leading rider Christophe Soumillon, who was on board at Ascot, retains the partnership.

The feature race of Saturday is the Eclipse and this year’s renewal looks red-hot. Ombudsman has been all the rage with punters since the declarations came out on Thursday but he looks short enough in the betting on the back of a fairly quick turnaround.

One that seems to have been forgotten about in the market is Ruling Court who could prove to be the value bet in the race. He showed a really smart turn of foot when getting the better of Field Of Gold in Newmarket’s 2,000 Guineas and that form could hardly be working out any better.

He skipped the Derby for Royal Ascot and not much went right for him that day, having got a bit worked up in the preliminaries, but he’s not the first horse that’s failed to handle everything Ascot throws at a young horse and it’s worth forgiving one bad run, particularly at the price he’s available at for the Eclipse.

The step up in trip is certainly a source of improvement given how he finished off his race in the Guineas and he looks overpriced at current odds.