The William Hill Futurity Trophy (2.05) – live on Sky Sports Racing – has a rich history of generating classic winners, cause and effect of Ballydoyle’s reverence of the race as a generational gateway to help turn two-year-old promise into three-year-old achievement.
Its importance is emphasised this year by such a talented trio of team-mates – dangerous to assume a known hierarchy in this instance.
Let’s take a deep dive into all six runners for the Doncaster feature…
1. Action (1)
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien | Jockey: Wayne Lordan
Already ahead of schedule, as third in a Royal Lodge was better than anything his close relative Lambourn managed as a two-year-old, and what’s more that didn’t get to the bottom of Action, who came from further back than Bow Echo and Humidity and recorded the fastest final furlong, out of rhythm in the Dip but in his element on the rising ground.
Though measured as the third string here, he’d be the number one in some years, not just on profile and projection as he’s equal to Benvenuto Cellini on official ratings and just 1lb off Hawk Mountain. This course and these conditions will elevate his next step into a hop, and maybe even a leap.
2. Benvenuto Cellini (2)
Aidan O’Brien | Christophe Soumillon
Second on debut at the Curragh in June, then an odds-on win in a maiden and a two-month break before a bigger statement success in the KPMG Champions Juvenile at Leopardstown on Irish Champions weekend, ahead of attacking the Futurity Trophy.
Benvenuto Cellini will go to post for the Futurity
The sculptors’ pathway, Auguste Rodin went where Benvenuto Cellini follows, in lockstep, only Benvenuto is 1lb ahead at the same stage after a five-length win at Leopardstown, with the how more relevant than who he beat, really rocketing through the final two furlongs, albeit off a steady pace.
He’s tracking to be something out of the ordinary, and in a race that means a lot to Ballydolye, it means a lot that he’s demonstrably their first string – also ante-post favourite for the Derby.
3. Hawk Mountain (6)
Aidan O’Brien | Ronan Whelan
If you tasked AI with creating a Futurity winner, it would probably look more like Hawk Mountain than either Action or Benvenuto Cellini, for the simple fact that five of Aidan O’Brien’s 11 winners came via the Beresford, on top of the classic Coolmore family, out of Hydrangea, who was twice second in Group 1s in the autumn of her juvenile campaign.
Hawk Mountain will contest Doncaster’s Group 1 on Saturday
His Beresford was a little light and his process a little awkward, at times, but a matter of rawness, and he still clocked a good time for the testing conditions. Front-running fits well with his style and spirit, and he’s almost toyed with the opposition twice, quickly coming alive when challenged and with no knowing how much is left in the tank, though it feels like a lot.
4. Item (5)
Andrew Balding | Colin Keane
He has Elm Park, Kameko and Gewan as references; two former winners and this season’s leading juvenile, all of whom – through the conduit of the stable – speak highly of Item, though he does need others to speak up for him as his form only whispers of his worthiness for this sort of level.
He has won both his starts and looked good in the process, but there’s ‘can win a nursery off 93’ good and then there’s Group 1 good, and he’s missing many rungs of the ladder to find out.
5. Oxagon (3)
John and Thady Gosden | Oisin Murphy
If he hadn’t run at Newmarket a fortnight ago then he’d undoubtedly be in amongst the Ballydoyle battalion in the betting, considering that in the Champagne he finished behind only the Lagardere winner, with the Dewhurst winner behind him along with Cape Orator, who landed the high-value sales race on Arc weekend.
His track position probably didn’t help in the Dewhurst, in which the first four were all nearer the stand-side rail than him, and Rivet is a horse from recent history who rebounded from the Dewhurst (also fifth) to win this, but it might just be the case that the reality doesn’t quite match the reputation for Oxagon. There’s just a chance the Frankel in him may come out more at this new trip, however.
6. Rochfortbridge (4)
Adrian Keatley | Oisin McSweeney
In the deep end since his winning debut, swimming rather than sinking but still coming up short in Group 3 and Listed company, including on Monday at Pontefract (2nd to Shayem). Overmatched even more so here.
Jamie Lynch’s verdict:
Futurity winners for Ballydoyle have come in all shapes and sizes, but the main thing that separates these three is reputation. Benvenuto Cellini could easily be the next big thing from the way he won on Irish Champions weekend, but his price assumes that he’s further along that curve than he actually is, so ACTION is surely the value play, joining the dots from how he came home in the Royal Lodge – with the highest finishing percentage speed – to his greater compatibility with the course and conditions on Saturday.
