O'Brien sends three in Royal Lodge Stakes

The Royal Lodge Stakes is a Group 2 race for 2-year-olds that has produced some high-end Group 1 horses. Roaring Lion won it last year and has emerged as one of Europe’s best runners of 2018, and the legendary Frankel captured the 2010 edition.

The Royal Lodge goes as the first race Saturday (post time 8:50 a.m. Eastern) at Newmarket on a 2-year-old-heavy program that also includes the Group 1 Middle Park for 2-year-old colts and the Group 1 Cheveley Park for 2-year-old fillies. The Group 1’s are contested over a straight-course six furlongs, while the Royal Lodge is a straight-course mile. It’s also part of the Breeder’s Cup Challenge Win and You’re In series and offers the winner a fees-paid entry plus travel expenses to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.

Aidan O’Brien trains three of the 10 Royal Lodge entrants, a trio that ranks in descending order as Cape of Good Hope, Mohawk, and Sydney Opera House.

Cape of Good Hope and Mohawk lost to the very promising Quorto but in different races.

Cape of Good Hope was second, beaten nearly four lengths by Quorto, in the seven-furlong Superlative Stakes on July 14 at Newmarket. Mohawk finished a distant fourth behind Quorto on Sept. 16 in the Group 1 National Stakes at The Curragh, and before that was second in a Group 2 behind National runner-up Anthony Van Dyck, an O’Brien colt headed to the Oct. 13 Dewhurst, a Group 1 at Newmarket. Mohawk, a maiden, might be closer in ability to Cape of Good Hope than the gulf between their early odds as of Thursday, 16-1 and 6-1.

Solidly favored in early betting with British bookies is the John Gosden-trained Beatboxer, who made short work of Sandown maidens in his seven-furlong debut and crunched five foes in a novice stakes Aug. 10 going a mile at Haydock Park. Bettors might in part be playing Gosden’s record in the Royal Lodge, which he has won five times and twice in the last three years, including last fall with Roaring Lion. Kuwait Currency, a comfortable winner of two straight, both for trainer Richard Hannon Jr., and Kadar, a handy debut winner for trainer Karl Burke, also have been well supported.

O’Brien’s highest-rated 2-year-old on the card is Ten Sovereigns, an odds-on early favorite to win the Middle Park. Ten Sovereigns, a son of No Nay Never, showed plenty of speed easily winning a pair of races at The Curragh this summer and will have Dewhurst designs with a strong Saturday showing. Jash, a blowout winner of both his starts and trained by Simon Crisford, looks like the main competition.

Pretty Pollyanna scored a course-and-distance win July 14 in the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, returned to win the Group 1 Prix Morny, and is solidly favored over Signora Cabello in the Cheveley Park.