Diamond Necklace shines in Nassau Stakes to set up an enticing potential clash with colts in Irish Champion Stakes

Rory King ponders the next port of call for Nassau Stakes winner Diamond Necklace, with a shot at the Irish Champion Stakes “even more enticing” than the Yorkshire Oaks.

The older-horse contingent in the Coral-Eclipse at the start of the month had been underpowered, helping to explain why a trio of three-year-olds finished clear, but on what’s played out over these last two days at Goodwood the evidence is clearly pointing to this being an above-average three-year-old crop, Diamond Necklace following Bow Echo the day before in notching a Group One against older horses to go with two against her own age group on her first two starts of the season.

This was actually her fourth straight top-level success having landed the Marcel Boussac in the autumn, and while she’d been dominant in the Pouliches, this was her best performance yet, readily getting past Friendly Soul who, for our money, ran as well as she ever has in finishing clear of See The Fire who was finishing in the first three in this for the third year running and while it might have been a small field, the time was really good, more than three seconds quicker than the good-quality three-year-old handicap that opened the card.

A provisional rating of 123 edges her above Thundering On among the three-year-old fillies, the latter’s Oaks form having been downgraded slightly on account of how poorly it’s worked out so far, and a potential clash between the pair in the Yorkshire Oaks, with some high-class older fillies/mares in the mix, too, would be an enthralling prospect.

Of course, that would be a further step up in trip for Diamond Necklace but she looks very professional and relaxed that she’s surely got sound hopes of staying it.

Connections rarely shy away from a challenge, even with an unbeaten record on the line (that far less significant for a filly than a colt in any case), and a clash with the boys in a Champion Stakes at either Leopardstown or Ascot would arguably be even more enticing.

Thirty five minutes earlier Enceladus had furthered his St Leger claims when landing the Gordon Stakes. Runner-up Geryon emerges as the best at the weights on the day as he was carrying a 3lb penalty (and didn’t get the clearest of runs, either) but the winner is progressing fast, successful on all three runs this season, and his King George V win at Royal Ascot is working out well, already five next-time-out winners now having come from the race, including runner-up Al Azd who won by a wide margin back at Ascot on Friday.

Enceladus is still learning – he lost some ground when jumping the path after 3f or so – but the way he settled without cover, not to mention a very low stride turnover, marks him out as an ideal St Leger candidate, with the Melbourne Cup perhaps also in connections’ minds.

Earlier on the card Man’s Best Friend put himself among the leading 2-y-os with a Richmond success that underplayed his authority.

Pitched straight into a Group 2 just over a week on from winning his maiden, the sort of thing his stable is never afraid to do, he’s plainly on a steep upward curve given the ease with which he breezed past Coventry and July Stakes runner-up Adaay of Scarlett having had to wait for room as he was beginning to really find his stride.

He’s got so many options now, but chief among them could well be the Prix Morny in 3 and a half weeks – it’s really interesting that he was one of 8 horses Aidan O’Brien entered in that just a few days on from hm finishing fourth on debut at an unconsidered 18/1 behind his stablemates Abraham Lincoln and Haffner.

Tags: