Whistlejacket, Babouche go separate ways in Middle Park, Cheveley Park

One might think, having seen his impressive victory in the Group 1 Prix Morny on Aug. 18, that Whistlejacket, a beast of a colt, rates as the best 2-year-old sprinter in Europe – but for the fact that the filly Babouche had handed him a 1 1/2-length defeat just eight days earlier in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes.

Both horses race in Group 1s Saturday at Newmarket Racecourse in England, but not against one another. British bookmakers had Whistlejacket on Thursday roughly an even-money favorite for the Middle Park Stakes, England’s most important six-furlong contest for the juvenile male set. Babouche, however, had a close market rival in Lake Victoria, a matchup of undefeated fillies in the Cheveley Park Stakes.

Aidan O’Brien trains Whistlejacket, as well as Camille Pissarro, whom Babouche edged winning her second start, the Angelsey Stakes. Babouche, a Juddmonte homebred in the care of trainer Ger Lyons, cannot get away from the O’Briens.

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Now O’Brien opposes Babouche with Lake Victoria, heroine of the Moyglare Stud Stakes on Sept. 15. Lake Victoria, held tightly together at the rear of a compact five-horse field, nudged between horses and closed down the outside, pulling clear in the final yards to win by 1 1/4 lengths, going away. Her suitability to the six-furlong distance of the Cheveley Park remains unknown, as all three of the Frankel filly’s starts have come over seven-eighths.

Babouche has gone six, 6 1/2, and then back to six in the Phoenix, a marked improvement over her Anglesey, not just in terms of ratings, but the manner in which she went about her business. Babouche, somewhat green in her second start, displayed a more professional approach throughout the Phoenix, appearing to have strengthened physically even in the three weeks since her previous start.

Whistlejacket, owned in partnership with Coolmore connections but bearing the silks of owner Peter Brant, already has made six starts, winning half of them. He rebounded in July and August from a disappointing showing as an odds-on favorite at Royal Ascot, hanging on tenaciously in the Morny after giving way to Babouche’s charge just days before. Whistlejacket might not be in front at the finish, but he is likely to be in front for much of the Middle Park, having made the running in all his outings.

The market has as his leading rival another O’Brien charge, Ides of March, who required three tries to win but has improved quickly and markedly the last two months.

Also carded is the Group 2 Royal Lodge over a straight mile, no longer part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series but a race that often produces runners in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. O’Brien, who always has a Juvenile Turf runner, could have American ambitions with Puppet Master, whose two races have come in races with turns, including a debut going left-handed at Killarney.

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