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| Royal Hunt Cup 2011 |
By Dylan Jenear ValueChecker
North Can Point the Way in Cavalry Charge
09/06/11
At the time of writing, there’s just a week to go until Royal Ascot commences. One of the races I look forward to most at the meeting is the Royal Hunt Cup, which takes place on the Wednesday.
Green Destiny has headed the ante-post market for this valuable handicap since making a winning reappearance at Newmarket in April. The son of Marju was certainly impressive on that occasion, beating his 18 rivals with a good deal of authority, and there’s every chance that he could be a Pattern-class performer masquerading as a handicapper. Indeed, with just four runs under his belt, there is plenty of scope for further improvement.
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However, while I respect Green Destiny greatly, I’m siding with Point North, whose profile is not too dissimilar to the horse his trainer, Jeremy Noseda, won this race with in 2009, Forgotten Voice. In keeping with his pedigree, the Danehill Dancer gelding is a slow-maturing type; he was unraced as a juvenile, and was only seen out four times in 2010, landing a Nottingham maiden on his final start of that campaign.
Point North still appeared to be learning his trade when making a winning reappearance at Kempton in May, but scored with plenty to spare, despite racing keenly in the early stages. Subsequently, he was turned over when hot favourite for a handicap at that track earlier this month, but he was drawn widest of all in the 14-strong field, and nothing went his way during the race. Under the circumstances, he did extremely well to be beaten just a length and a half into third.
There is plenty of stamina in Point North’s pedigree, and I’m pretty sure that a strongly-run mile on the straight course at Ascot will be far more suitable than a sharp mile around Kempton. Moreover, I’m confident we haven’t seen the best of the four-year-old yet and, at a top-priced 14-1, he’s as good an ante-post bet at this year’s royal meeting as there is in my opinion.
Needless to say, there are dangers aplenty, Green Destiny aside. Luca Cumani’s Star Right didn’t get the rub of the green when third to Dance And Dance at Epsom and if that duo renew rivalry as anticipated in the Hunt Cup, I am confident that Star Right will come out on top this time. Irish raider Stunning View, along with Mont Agel and Pintura, is also high on the list.
Recommendation: POINT NORTH
