Jamie Lynch spotlights the top two-year-olds going for Group 1 glory on Town Moor on Saturday as Aidan O’Brien bids for a 13th win, live on Sky Sports Racing.
If it’s an important race for Aidan O’Brien – and 12 wins says it is – then it’s an important race for each season and each generation, a Group 1 with a rich history of generating Classic winners.
Sure enough, Ballydoyle holds the keys to the William Hill Futurity Trophy once again, three keys to be precise, in a field of just seven, but the rest are more than merely making up the numbers.
Here’s an in-depth rundown of the Group 1 participants, for the feature race of Saturday, live at 1.30pm on Sky Sports Racing.
1. Al Hudaiba (Draw 1)
Jockey: William Buick | Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Misfits matter because they can be innovative and inspirational, holding within them the ability to challenge, or challenging ability in the case of Al Hudaiba, whose shimmying and swerving are all part of his routine, taken to extremes the day he unshipped Tom Marquand.
William Buick is set for the ride on Al Hudaiba
And then there’s the feeling of his tools and this test being a misfit, of competing forces, at least compared to the whizzing around Keeneland on fast ground for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, for which he earned a free berth after his Woodbine win including ingrained slalom. I can’t see it, but more meaningful is that Charlie Appleby clearly can, and he won the Futurity in 2023 with Ancient Wisdom.
2. Breacher (5)
Lewis Edmunds | William Muir & Chris Grassick
William Muir has promised us that this is a top horse, which isn’t unusual for him, as we know, but the groundwork has been good, and now his sire gets to do the talking, as the ground and the galloping nature of this test means it’s time for the Cracksman in him to come out.
Ombudsman running riot last week was a reminder of just how scintillating Cracksman was in a soft-ground Champion Stakes, not once but twice, and Breacher hinted at being cut from a similar cloth with his staying-on third in the Solario, the style to add to the substance of another third in the Champagne, behind Desert Castle and the reopposing Sergei Diaghilev. Moving up to a mile may turn the boy into a man.
3. Burning Up (7)
Clifford Lee | Karl Burke
Burning Up felt the pinch and the pressure of the second-fastest Royal Lodge since the race was relocated to Newmarket (in 2011), on ground that was more like firm than the official good to firm, but his work out of the Dip that took him from fifth to second – beaten only by Heffner – suggested the Futurity framework would amp up his power, by plugging more into his stamina, from a classy middle-distance family.
Additionally, he looked really good and moved really well when conditions were on the soft side for his latter win at Haydock. With his profile and propulsion, he’s got a chance of stemming the Ballydoyle tide.
4. Giant Sequoia (3)
Dylan Browne McMonagle | Aidan O’Brien
The September slump was real for Aidan O’Brien, who sighted a low-level infection: his strike-rate in Ireland dropped to 14%, when more like 20% is the norm, and the run-to-form ratio likewise dipped below 60%, from a resting rate around 75%. That in itself is some mitigation for a dull display by Giant Sequoia in the National Stakes, when the choice of Moore over Royal Lodge winner Haffner, though the Moore merry-go-round now aligns with Noble Exhibit.
Giant Sequoia had a tall reputation from day one – even from Ballydoyle not many go off at 4-9 on their debut – but the Futurity was more functional than flashy, his star perhaps dimming, though he’s bred to be suited by this step up in trip, being out of an Irish Oaks runner-up.
5. Gran Dia (2)
Oisín Murphy | Andrew Balding
In the race to be champion trainer, O’Brien has got three high cards, whereas Andrew Balding is playing a joker, but it’s hard to believe that Gran Dia can muscle in on the meaty prize money considering this is a world away from Salisbury, where he made a winning start.
That in itself is a big positive from the yard, which has had only six other winning two-year-old newcomers this year (including Moonrise and Forbidden Fire), but neither the time nor the form of Gran Dia’s debut justifies him jumping up and missing quite the number of rungs of the ladder that he is.
6. Noble Exhibit (6)
Ryan Moore | Aidan O’Brien
It’s the classic approach for the classic trainer when it comes to the Futurity. Of Aidan O’Brien’s dozen winners, half of them came via the Beresford, including the very first, Saratoga Springs, way back in 1997. Noble Exhibit is virtually a replica of the latest, Hawk Mountain, including for style, as a front-runner, and though his Beresford success wasn’t by so wide a margin, Noble Exhibit was gearing down by the end and actually brings a 1lb higher rating with him to Doncaster, if only equal to Al Hudaiba on official figures.
Noble Exhibit represents Ballydoyle
He’s self-evident, a decision by dropdown not dynamism, a process of elimination rather than exhilaration, but the who, how and why of figuring out the Futurity all point to him: who trains him, how he got here and why Moore has picked him.
7. Sergei Diaghilev (4)
Wayne Lordan | Aidan O’Brien
Exposed and established by now, but that was also the presumption around his uncle Johannes Vermeer before he was second in this in 2015 (and won the Criterium International eight days later). The last twice, Sergei Diaghilev has been beaten only by two of Godolphin’s highest hopes, Desert Castle in the Champagne and Rock Montreal in the Autumn, with the advantage of dictating in both races, when the sole Ballydoyle representative. He’s the support act this time.
Jamie Lynch’s verdict
The start point – and usually the end point – of the Futurity is the Ballydoyle contingent, numbering three this time, but none of them are particularly starry nor scary, relative to most years.
It’s not stretching it to say that Haffner would have been the stable’s selected had he come this way, which is pertinent because BURNING UP chased him home in the Royal Lodge in circumstances far less favourable than this playing ground promises to be, making him an attractive alternative for Karl Burke, numerically the top British trainer for the juveniles again this year.
Watch every race from William Hill Futurity Trophy Weekend at Doncaster live on Sky Sports Racing