Three Performances Of The Weekend - 17/08/20

The big event of the weekend was the Group One Prix Jacques Le Marois and the John Gosden trained Palace Pier backed up his strong favouritism in the market to land the black type event.

The son of Kingman has been faultless to date, winning both his starts as a juvenile, starting at Sandown back in August winning a nice maiden and then going on to back that up over the same course and distance.

He made his seasonal debut at Newcastle on the all weather seeing off a stern effort from the Richard Fahey trained Acquitted but off the back of that he improved a massive amount to hunt down Pinatubo late in the day at Royal Ascot in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Having four wins from four races, he put his unbeaten tag on the line in what was arguably his toughest event to date and in Heavy ground cleared away from the field with the Jessica Harrington trained Alpine Star the closest to him.

He really is a superstar that could step up 1 mile 2 furlongs next time out says his handler.

It was an emotional weekend for Sir Michael Stoute with the passing of his partner in the week and if anything his nearly horse Dream Of Dreams managed to land the Group Two Hungerford Stakes.

The six year old she be looked back on in his career as being a dual Diamond Jubilee winner at the royal meeting but having been beaten twice in a photo finish, he is one of the hard luck stories in racing.

On Saturday at Newbury he stepped up to seven furlongs, which he has previously done during his career, and this time managed not only win the event but dominate it by seven lengths.

He has plenty of options now after taking that event with ease, proving he is a Group One standard animal and he could either be targeted at six or seven furlong events.

Finally, the third performance from the weekend that stood out to us and classy and looked like it should be made noticed is the Owen Burrows trained Hukum landing the Group Three Geoffrey Freer Stakes.

The Hamdan Al Maktoum owned three year old has only been seen four time now on a racecourse and after being a smart juvenile and landing the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot he next step was to be put into group company.

He was put into this classy field of proven stayers and in wet conditions made it look very easy, clearing away in the final stages to take the event and better contests await the youngster.

Owen Burrows has gone under the radar this term for how well his yard has been doing and is a trainer to take notice of.