Three Pronged Assault On York Sprint

It looks as though there could be as many as three juvenile contenders for next week’s Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York’s Ebor festival fixture, following the news that Henry Candy’s Dinkum Diamond looks set to join Meow and Stone Of Folca in the five furlong all-aged dash, writes Elliot Slater.

Candy’s Aussie Rules colt was sent off favourite for the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot in June having won his first two outings in impressive fashion, but failed to fire as expected and came home in sixth behind Approve having refused to settle in the early stages of the contest.

Given a two month break since his Ascot exertions, Candy believes that Dinkum Diamond (33/1) is capable of giving a good account of himself in the weight-for-age sprint, for which the recent dual Group 1 winner Starspangledbanner, trained by Aidan O’Brien, remains a somewhat uneasy favourite having drifted to 11/4 in the face of strong support for Barry Hills’ Equiano, the horse who pushed him all the way in the July Cup, and is now a general 3/1 chance with York Ebor Odds.

It seems that Irish trainer David Wachman is also intending to run his juvenile Meow in the York feature, the filly having only just failed to land the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out. Betting firms make the daughter of Storm Cat just 12/1 to land the spoils.

The third possible York Ebor favourite odds runner for the juvenile brigade is John Best’s Stone Of Folca, fourth in the Norfolk Stakes before going mighty close to landing the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at the recent Glorious Goodwood meeting. Best, who sent out the flying two-year-old Kingsgate Native to land the Nunthorpe in 2007, seems bullish about his colt’s chances, confidence reflected in his current odds of just 10/1.

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