Paddington faces just three in International Stakes in bid for eighth straight
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The fabulous 3-year-old Paddington will have but three rivals when he tries for his eighth straight win Wednesday in the Group 1 International Stakes at York Racecourse.
An injury to star-crossed 2022 Derby winner Desert Crown this past weekend and the withdrawal Monday of several other early entrants for the about 1 5/16-mile fixture left only Mostahdaf, the filly Nashwa, and longshot The Foxes to face Paddington.
Paddington, an odds-on favorite, gets seven pounds from 5-year-old Mostahdaf and four from 4-year-old Nashwa. John and Thady Gosden train both Mostahdaf and Nashwa, with Frankie Dettori on Mostahdaf and Hollie Doyle aboard Nashwa. Ryan Moore rides Paddington for trainer Aidan O’Brien.
Paddington wasn’t held in especially high regard when his 3-year-old season began in March. He is now.
Paddington raced twice at 2, winning a maiden race second time out by five lengths. He began his 2023 campaign quietly at Naas, capturing a modest handicap, before winning the listed Tetrarch Stakes. Paddington was a tepid 3-1, a distant second choice behind Royal Scotsman, in his group stakes debut, the Irish 2000 Guineas, but he won that race by two lengths, coming back to easily defeat English 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean winning the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes by nearly four lengths. Paddington stretched beyond one mile for the first time while defeating older rivals in the 1 1/4-mile Eclipse, another Group 1, and was comfortably best cutting back to a mile in the Group 1 Sussex on Aug. 2 at Goodwood.
That’s a tremendous résumé, and Paddington has mastered courses both lively and toiling, winning the Sussex over very soft ground. He goes well on easy-turning tracks like The Curragh and adapted to quirky Goodwood. Moore seemingly can place this colt, by Siyouni, wherever he likes.
Mostahdaf, by Frankel, exits a career pinnacle, a four-length pasting of five rivals in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes over 1 1/4 miles at Royal Ascot. That was a slightly higher-rated performance than anything Paddington has achieved, but the eight-pound weight spread more than makes up for the difference, and the younger horse still has room to improve.
Nashwa didn’t love course conditions last out at Goodwood and ran close to her best form in her previous start, winning the Falmouth over a straight mile at Newmarket. She never has started at York, a left-handed course with gentle turns and a homestretch of more than three furlongs. The going as of Monday was good, and the International is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, offering the winner automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Classic and travel expenses to Santa Anita.
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