Fifteen Remain In Dewhurst

Expert Eye winning at Goodwood | Racing Post

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Aidan O'Brien is responsible for seven of the fifteen horses left in Saturday's G1 Darley Dewhurst S. at Newmarket on Saturday as the Ballydoyle trainer bids to continue a magnificent season that has yielded 23 Group 1 wins so far. However his septet, headed by last time out Group 1 winners U S Navy Flag (War Front) and Happily (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) look likely to face a strong home team in the £500,000 race over seven furlongs. Sir Michael Stoute's exciting juvenile Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) has not been seen since a scintillating performance in the G2 Qatar Vintage S. at Goodwood in August and his reappearance on Saturday will be eagerly awaited. Also in line for the Dewhurst is 'TDN Rising Star' Emaraaty (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) who improved from a debut fourth at Sandown early September to break his maiden impressively next time out at Newbury Sept. 23. John Gosden trains the 2.6m guinea yearling purchase for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and the Sheikh's racing manager Angus Gold is looking forward to seeing the colt take up his next challenge, which he admits is formidable. “I watched Emaraaty work on the Limekilns on Saturday morning and he is in fine physical shape. Jim Crowley rode him and was very pleased with him,” Gold said on Monday.

“It is a big step up from a maiden to a Group 1 and I would be stupid to assure you that he was going to beat horses like Expert Eye on Saturday. But he's a very quick colt with great potential and we are very hopeful that he will be a Group 1 horse at some point in his career. His action suggests that the likely good or fast ground on Saturday should be no problem to him at all,” he added.

Another intriguing likely contender is Jim Bolger's homebred Verbal Dexterity (Ire) (Vocalised). He also earned a 'TDN Rising Star' for an almost ten length winning debut at The Curragh in June before failing to match Beckford (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) over six furlongs in the G2 Railway S. He proved a revelation back up to seven when winning the G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National S. at The Curragh last month and given his trainer's fearsome record in the Dewhurst he looks a major player on Saturday.

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