In a weekend with nine races live on ITV on Saturday, the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes has drawn the highest quality. We have picked out our 1-2-3 in the race below, and the verdict might surprise…
Dubai Poet (Roger Varian, Andrea Atzeni)
Tiber Flow is not just the shortest-priced three-year-old, but he is currently the overall market leader. That seems strange, especially as there may be another of his age group primed to beat him.
DUBAI POET was placed behind 2000 Guineas hero Coroebus as a juvenile and has only really run two bad races, both of which he has had excuses. Soft ground did not help him in last year’s Horris Hill Stakes, while a step up in trip to 1m2½f did not suit in the Dee Stakes at Chester.
However, trainer Roger Varian may finally have hit upon his ideal conditions, as his charge finished third in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot. That looks a race with a fair amount of depth to it, with the fifth and tenth both winning Pattern races since and plenty of others showing up prominently on their next starts.
The son of Lope De Vega is bang in this on that form alone, especially as he was the only one of the first six drawn low (stall 2, others drawn between 11-15). That could prove most significant and he is a surprising price given there is improvement to come.
Pogo (Charles Hills, Kieran Shoemark)
Though always a consistent force at a decent level, few would have foreseen the performances POGO has produced since returning to Britain in 2022.
He is now among Charlie Hills’ stable stars. Prior to this season, he had been a dual Listed winner, hardly anything to be sniffed at, but has now won twice in Group company, reaching a standard he had hitherto not realised.
After two Group 2 places in 2021, he came back to Britain after a brief spell in the Middle East to win Haydock’s group 3 John Of Gaunt Stakes. That was a tough race to win with the likes of Laneqash and Kinross in behind, but better was still to come.
At Newmarket’s July meeting, he defied a 3lb penalty for his Haydock success to claim back-to-back Group 3s in the Criterion Stakes. That was a superb performance as he ultimately won going away at the line.
Though he narrowly missed out on a hat-trick in the Group 2 Lennox Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, he was beaten only half-a-length in a race maybe slightly stronger than this and he is the likeliest to give his high-level best here.
Chindit (Richard Hannon, Pat Dobbs)
Conceding weight all round might be too tough for CHINDIT to be victorious, but he is the class horse in the race.
He has won both of his races this season in which Baaeed was not in the field, which goes to show how capable he is. He was even placed behind that champion when front-running in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, though he was more easily beaten in both the Queen Anne and Sussex Stakes’ since.
That said, on his other two starts this season, he won comfortably in a Doncaster Listed race and gamely won the Group 2 Summer Mile, for which he is penalised more harshly than all others here.
The form of that race is very strong, but the step back to 7f is not guaranteed to help him and the weight concession to all may just be enough to stop him.