Paddington tries to pull off rare triple in Sussex

Trainer Aidan O’Brien in 2000 won the St. James’s Palace Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes, and the Sussex Stakes with the 3-year-old colt Giant’s Causeway. He starts odds-on favorite Paddington trying to pull the same triple in the Group 1 Sussex on Wednesday at Goodwood Racecourse in England.

Giant’s Causeway is the only recent winner of all three Group 1 stakes, the St. James’s Palace an age-restricted mile at Royal Ascot, the Eclipse a 1 1/4-mile contest open to older horses, and the Sussex another mile, this also open to older horses and run over Goodwood’s quirky, turning course.

Paddington, as short as about 1-2 with British bookmakers as of Monday, has won three Group 1s in a row, capturing the Irish 2000 Guineas before romping in the St. James’s Palace over English 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean and fending off the John and Thady Gosden-trained 4-year-old filly Emily Upjohn in the Eclipse. Paddington got seven pounds from Emily Upjohn in the Eclipse but carries only four pounds fewer than the John and Thady Gosden-trained 4-year-old filly Inspiral in the Sussex.

The race comes just four days after the O’Brien-trained 3-year-old Auguste Rodin finished a distant last as the favorite in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but where Auguste Rodin appeared to struggle somewhat winning the Irish Derby, his race before the King George, Paddington has been getting ever stronger. By Siyouni, Paddington didn’t run in a group stakes race until his fifth start, when he landed the Irish 2000 Guineas, and after racing with his head slightly higher than ideal in the St. James’s Palace, he looked like a smoother, more polished racehorse seeing off Emily Upjohn.

O’Brien has only won the Sussex once since 2009, but Paddington would be the race’s 13th 3-year-old winner since 2000.

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Inspiral at her best would be a worthy rival. Europe’s best 2-year-old filly of 2021, when she was unbeaten in four starts, Inspiral won two Group 1 miles last summer before ending her 3-year-old campaign with a sixth-place finish last fall in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, a career nadir. She didn’t start again until the Queen Anne Stakes on opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting, where she finished second behind 33-1 Triple Time, but Inspiral likely has a better performance in her than that. A Goodwood course rated good-to-soft as of Monday won’t trouble her, though Paddingon has won on ground ranging from heavy to good.

Aldaary may be the best among a trio of older horses that must concede seven pounds to Paddington. Charyn, another 3-year-old, completes a six-runner field in a race that’s part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the winner receiving automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Mile and travel expenses to Santa Anita.

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