NOW MAKE YOURSELF A LEGEND

Paul Jacobs reveals the horses to look out for in a hectic schedule of June meetings

The sixth month of the year is always a massive one for flat racing with the Derby, Oaks, Coronation and of course Royal Ascot.

Both of the mile-and-a-half classics at Epsom remain tough to call at the time of writing with the Dante and Musidora Stakes still to be run at York after I have presented this column to my esteemed editor, so it is hard to make a definitive call in both races.

What I can tell you is that my ante-post book for Epsom revolves around the Feilden Stakes winner, Canberra Legend, who I thought was seriously impressive with the way he went through that Listed contest at Newmarket and readily put the prize to bed. He blew quite a bit on the way back to the winner’s enclosure and being only his second career start, won a novice over a mile on his career debut at Newcastle, there should be a whole lot more left to come from his improvement locker. The Dante Stakes at York will have either crushed my hopes or hopefully elevated them by the time you read this column.

I don’t really have a view on the Oaks and the Coronation field is far from set in stone at the time of writing. I had hoped that Point Lonsdale would have won with a tad more authority in the Huxley Stakes at Chester on the Friday of their May meeting, but perhaps he is crying out for a step up to a mile and a half.

It could be that Epsom comes too soon and the Hardwicke Stakes is his port of call. I certainly would prefer to see his stamina stretched out a bit more and would turn a blind eye towards the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh.