In the Boodles Chester Vase Stakes on Wednesday, owners Juddmonte will be looking to make it back-to-back wins as Cadogan Place looks to duplicate Arrest's victory from a year ago.
Similar to Arrest, Andrew Balding's colt is a well-bred son of Frankel. However, while the scorer from the previous year had Group form, this year's model is essentially an untested talent stepping up in class after a successful debut at Southwell.
The novice winners of Rolleston would not normally be favourites for the Classic trials when they make their next start, but this particular 11-furlong race had a lot of potential after Cadogan Place narrowly defeated the opposing Hidden Law, a Charlie Appleby Betfred Derby competitor.
“He’s a nice colt who has just taken a bit of time – which is why he started so late, he’s a big horse,” said Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s European racing manager. “He won his novice from Charlie’s horse who has since gone on and franked the form with an impressive win at Newbury. They reoppose each other again and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. He’s a nice colt, he’s improving a lot and is a well-bred colt, so we’re looking forward to a good run.”
Arrest would go on from Chester to make him the favourite going into his next start in the Derby.
Although Cadogan Place does not currently have entry tickets to the Premier Classic, a trip to Epsom is still possible as connections are eager to find out more about their colt, who Oisin Murphy will be riding with on the Roodee.
“I suppose we’re going to find out what we have and we didn’t have the Derby on our minds, simply as if he didn’t make it to the track at two,” continued Mahon. “He’s not an exuberant workhorse at home, so we didn’t have Epsom on our mind. He won his novice in nice fashion, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of options to run him back in a novice. This is a nice option and it tells us where we will go from here. He’s a fine, big, well-bred horse and very nice physically. He’s taken his time to mature, but he passed his first test and we’re stepping up to the next level and if he passes that then there’s all the conversations to be had. And if he doesn’t we can then make alternative plans.”
With his impeccable record in this race, Aidan O'Brien, the Ballydoyle handler, is putting two horses in the Group Three event in an attempt to tie the record with his eleventh victory.
Ruler Of The World, trained by O'Brien, won this in 2013 and later struck at Epsom, while Wings Of Eagles finished second in 2017 and then triumphed on the Surrey Downs later that summer.
This time, Grosvenor Square, who won the Eyrefield Stakes handily on his last start at two, is the main contender for him. Ryan Moore rides him, and Dylan Browne McMonagle rides alongside stablemate Agenda.
Moore told Betfair: “He looks the clear form choice on his form at two. I didn’t ride him in any of his three starts last year, but he followed up a good third in the Beresford when an impressive winner of a Group Three at Leopardstown on deep ground. He promises to be well suited to this trip and there is no reason to think he won’t be as least as effective on a decent surface. In fact, he will probably improve for it. He’s a good prospect, but our other Galileo colt, Agenda, is far from out of this, either.”