Having missed Newmarket's G2 Jockey Club S. earlier this month, Saeed Suhail's Across the Stars (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) finally gets back to the races on Saturday in Newbury's G3 Al Rayyan S., or Aston Park S. as it is registered. Having won the G2 King Edward VII S. over this trip at Royal Ascot in June, the bay was far from disgraced when third under a penalty in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York in August. Forced to sidestep the Dubai World Cup due to a temperature, he makes his belated comeback in a hot race and connections are therefore guarded. “It seems every time we get going, he runs up a temperature,” the owner's racing manager Bruce Raymond explained. “It's only for a day and then the next day he is fine. We've had a good run with him–he's been working with all his usual zest–so we're looking forward to running. He's got form on soft ground, so that isn't a worry. He disappointed in the Voltigeur last year, but he came back with a little bit of a temperature so we had excuses that day.”
Sir Michael Stoute also saddles Khalid Abdullah's Midterm (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), who was fifth in the G3 John Porter S. over this course and distance on Apr. 22 and who is fitted with a first-time visor to sharpen him up. “After Newbury he has come on a fair bit, but he needed to because he was a bit lacklustre there,” racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe commented. “It looks a very strong race for a Group 3, unfortunately from our point of view. We wanted to go to Chester and I suppose after this rain there's got to be some cut in the ground so I just hope it's suitable. He has been working quite well recently which is encouraging, because he's not a good work horse usually.”
It is a measure of the strength of this contest that two Group 1 winners from last year, My Dream Boat (Ire) (Lord Shanakill) and Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy), do not occupy favouritism despite both having form on this type of surface. The former sprang a surprise in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. at the expense of Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at Royal Ascot in June, while Hawkbill overturned The Gurkha (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Eclipse S. at Sandown in July. The latter was fifth on his return in the 10 1/2-furlong G1 Prix Ganay at Saint-Cloud on May 1 and his trainer Charlie Appleby said, “He has come out of the Ganay well. It just felt they went a French pace in the Ganay and it turned into a sprint, which is one thing that doesn't suit our lad. He's a good galloper and does that well. Stepping back up to a mile-and-a- half is going to suit and the ground is there to suit. It is a very good Group 3 on paper.”
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