Aidan Edges Closer

Ian Heitman sees O’Brien bag four juvenile Group 1 wins as he chases Bobby Frankel’s record

- Ian Heitman

Aidan O’Brien moved closer to breaking Bobby Frankel’s record of 25 Group/Grade 1 wins in a calendar year with six Group 1 victories in recent weeks, four coming from two-year-olds leaving him just one short of the record.

It seems just a matter of time before the record is broken and if he hasn’t managed to do on Champions Day at Ascot on October 21st, he will no doubt have a strong hand in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on October 28th and at the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in California on November 3rd and 4th when there are 13 Grade 1 races spread over the two-day meeting.

NEWMARKET CAMBRIDGESHIRE MEETING

Churchill got the ball rolling in 2017 with victory in the 2000 Guineas in early May and his full-sister CLEMMIE became the 18th Group 1 winner of 2017 when she landed the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on September 30th, the third day of the Cambridgeshire meeting.

Before looking at day three, there were Group races for two-year-olds on the first two days of the meeting with the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes the feature two-year-old race on the opening day. ELARQAM justified strong market support to maintain his unbeaten record with a comfortable two and a quarter length victory from TIP TWO WIN who proved his Doncaster Listed win wasn’t a fluke with a good run to be second. Elarqam is a good-looking colt with a top-class pedigree and he has the scope to progress well over the winter and develop into a Group 1 performer at three and could be good value at 16/1 for the 2000 Guineas given what happened in the Dewhurst a couple of weeks later.