Sometimes the stars align to produce a clash for the ages.
Godolphin run the two best three-year-old sprinters in Britain in today’s Commonwealth Cup but Clive Cox’s Harry Angel and Charlie Appleby’s Blue Point still might not be good enough to land the Group One race of the meeting.
This will be just the third running of the Commonwealth Cup, after Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s subsequent champion sprinter Muharaar won the inaugural running in 2015.
The 1,200-metre contest has quickly established itself as one of the key races of the 30 here, and with four legitimate contenders something has got to give.
Coolmore field the unbeaten Caravaggio, a dark brute of a sprinter who will be ridden by Ryan Moore and is one of the most electric animals to have come out of the imposing gates of Ballydoyle.
The mount of Ryan Moore showcased to the world his brilliance here 12 months ago when he was a devastating winner of the Group 2 Coventry Stakes. On the clock it was a superb run, and Godolphin’s subsequent UAE Derby winner Thunder Snow was left trailing in his wake in sixth.
No Group 1 race at Royal Ascot can be considered truly out of the top drawer without a dose of healthy international competition, and Wesley Ward has plucked off his conveyor belt of sprinters in Keeneland another monster in Bound For Nowhere.
Bound For Nowhere has run only twice, and is therefore the least experienced of the high-class quartet. He put his rivals to the sword in both of those runs, however, by an aggregate of over 10 lengths.
Beating up moderate US juveniles is not anything tangible for those outside America. Ask Ward what Bound For Nowhere can do on the gallops, though, and it becomes clear that Tuesday’s imperious King’s Stand Stakes winner Lady Aurelia might not even be the best of Ward’s raiders housed in the English National Stud.
“I matched Bound For Nowhere with Lady Aurelia prior to his last race and he was unseasoned after just one run and she was just much better,” Ward said. “He then ran his last race and from that experience it helped him prove to be a very valid opponent against her in every work.
“One of the works we put her on the lead to settle, because she had to do too much to catch him and we brought him four or five lengths behind and he caught her. I see the talent that he has and I think he has got a great chance.”
Matching one of the best three-year-old sprinters seen on a British racecourse in the past decade on the gallops does not mean Bound For Nowhere is home and hosed, because the Godolphin duo have shown up on the track already.
Blue Point, who will be ridden once again by William Buick, holds the track record here, after he beat Harry Angel last month in the Pavilion Stakes. Harry Angel was giving Blue Point 4lbs that day, and he subsequently smashed the track record at Haydock when he pinned back his ears and never really saw another rival in the Sandy Lane Stakes.
Harry Angel was then bought on behalf of Godolphin operation by John Ferguson, who recently resigned his position as CEO and racing manager. It was Harry Angel’s fourth career start, and it could be that he has the most latent talent of them all.
"Despite his lack of experience, I am upbeat about his chances," Cox said.
"He is really growing in confidence. I'm thrilled with the feeling he is giving us since he broke the track record on his last start.
"I honestly think Harry Angel is very good. I've always had a lot of confidence in his ability and he's still not the finished article.
"He's shown a lot of greenness in his behaviour in the stalls. But I think we've got a serious performer."
