Greenham among key weekend preps for European 3-year-olds

As the European 3-year-old season heats up, the name on everyone’s mind is Too Darn Hot, but things went south for Europe’s top 2-year-old of 2018 this week and the colt will miss his intended comeback start this weekend in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury.

Too Darn Hot, trainer John Gosden revealed Wednesday, sustained a leg injury in training that has forced him out of the Greenham. Connections hope Too Darn Hot can still be ready for the English 2000 Guineas on the first Saturday in May, but, 2-year-old champ or not, the weekend preps – in England, Ireland, and France – still go on.

The Greenham is one of two seven-furlong Group 3's on the Saturday card at Newbury designed as preps for the English Guineas races. Boitron, from the yard of Richard Hannon Jr., is the solid antepost favorite for this straight-course race, his résumé including a fourth-place, 2-year-old season-ending finish behind Godolphin’s Royal Marine in the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere, a race preceded by a comfortable listed-stakes score – going seven furlongs at Newbury.

It’s the course-and-and-distance win plus the year-end Group 1 showing more than any particular brilliance that has made Boitron, a son of Le Havre, the early betting favorite, and it would be no surprise if one of the other eight in the Greenham stepped forward and won. Two that have run well enough to merit consideration are Great Scot and Hello Youmzain, but the former might need more distance, the latter less. Mohaather might have started out as Hamdan al Maktoum’s third-or-so string, but he was an easy course-and-distance maiden winner to end his 2-year-old season and might be a sneaky play Saturday.

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Immediately preceding the Greenham is its filly counterpart, the Fred Darling, which has Dancing Vega and So Perfect at the head of the market.

Dancing Vega, who is by the same sire, Lope de Vega, as the star American filly Newspaperofrecord, has one start on her record, but it was an eye-catching one, for sure. Bet to 5-2 for trainer Ralph Beckett, Dancing Vega beat nine rivals in a one-mile Doncaster maiden race, tracking the pace and zipping into the clear in the final furlong to pull quickly away to a four-length victory. The runner-up, Blue Gardenia, turned up a week later at Newmarket and won a maiden race.

So Perfect had an active seven-start 2-year-old season that ended with a creditable third-place finish behind the powerhouse sprinter Bulletin and high-quality filly Chelsea Cloisters in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, So Perfect has yet to race beyond six furlongs and the Fred Darling probably is a proving ground to determine the trajectory of her spring campaign.

In France, the 3-year-old stakes is the Group 3 Prix Sigy at Chantilly, which is named for a filly but open to males as an early prep for the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas). The seven-horse field, which lacks real substance, might have True Mason as the most likely winner. True Mason should suit the 5 1/2-furlong distance. After chasing some of the better juveniles in Europe last season, he tailed off to finish eighth in his final start of 2018.

In Ireland, the Group 3 action is for older horses at Naas, and a strong cast has been entered in the 10-furlong Alleged Stakes. Set to make their first starts of the year are the one-two finishers from the 2018 Irish St. Leger, Flag of Honour, trained by Aidan O’Brien, and Latrobe, trained by Joseph O’Brien. Aidan O’Brien also entered Magical, who last was seen finishing second by just three-quarters of a length to the great Enable in the Breeder’s Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Talented 4-year-old Hazapour also runs in a race that looks more like a Group 1 than a Group 3.