The Weekend Winners panel reconvene to look at the Coral-Eclipse, which sees Derby hero City Of Troy face seven rivals, including Clive Cox's Ghostwriter and Dancing Gemini. Watch Weekend Winners in full on the At The Races YouTube channel.
Friday 5 July 2024 13:46, UK
On the latest episode of Weekend Winners, At The Races' Declan Rix picks out Ghostwriter as an each-way play up against City Of Troy in Saturday's Coral-Eclipse.
Kate Tracey is joined by Declan Rix of attheraces.com and BetVictor's Chris Poole to preview this weekend's racing at Sandown and Haydock.
The team had differing views on the angle into the Coral-Eclipse, where Derby winner City Of Troy is the odds-on favourite for Ballydoyle.
"If you take City Of Troy out it's a really good race to get involved in. I'm not convinced the drop-in trip will bring out the best in him, and if he wins it will be similar to the way Golden Horn did. He can't have had an easy race in the Derby, he travelled so strongly, hit the line so well and there have been a couple of Derby winners turned over at short prices in the past.
"The markets suggest he's the most likely winner and I'm looking forward to seeing him back. I reckon they'll go forward with him, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hands Andersen was in there as a bit of a dummy runner meanwhile Ryan Moore will slide up the front end or just sit off.
"I'll go with Ghostwriter without City Of Troy. He's a really likeable horse and so much went wrong for him in the Guineas. I don't think he likes the Newmarket track either, he was outpaced and unbalanced. Getting back to a quicker surface on Saturday will suit."
"I'll also go to the without market, but with Dancing Gemini. Hopefully, Kieran Shoemark can get a nice tune out of this lad for Roger Teal following his cracking run on reappearance when second in the French 2000 Guineas at ParisLongchamp, which he arguably could have won.
"In the Derby last time out he didn't quite get the mile and four but back to ten furlongs should surely see him at his best. We talk about ages in the trends, and this is an obvious one - three-year-olds have won the last three renewals of this one."
"I couldn't back City Of Troy at the price, although I think he'll win. From a selection point of view, I'll put up Al Riffa each-way because if all eight run you're better with an each-way angle or playing without the favourite.
"I wasn't too keen on Ghostwriter and Dancing Gemini I'm definitely not convinced of. There's no chinks in the armour of City Of Troy as far as I'm concerned, and it's great he's turned up because it wouldn't be half the race had he not."
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