Arrest (10-11 favourite) enhanced his Betfred Derby claims with a comfortable success in the Boodles Chester Vase Stakes on day one of the Boodles Chester May Festival. And with victory in the Group Three contest, he could be the horse to try and give Frankie Dettori a final victory in next month's blue riband at Epsom, with the popular Italian retiring at the end of the season.
The success at Chester has seen Arrest installed as the new Derby favourite with several bookmakers taking over from Aidan O'Brien's Auguste Rodin, who had been the winter market leader before his disappointing effort in last Saturday's QIPCO 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. The Gosdens' son of Frankel is 4-1 with Paddy Power and a best-priced 8-1 with Unibet.
In the rain-softened ground the Juddmonte-owned Arrest was always travelling well just off the pace set by Charlie Johnston's Hardianus – ridden by Scouser Franny Norton. But once he went by the front-runner, Arrest move clear in the straight with O'Brien's Adelaide River (9-4) unable to go with him. Arrest was eased down towards the finish of the 1m4f contest, eventually scoring by six-and-a-half-lengths from Adelaide River.
John Gosden said: "He handled conditions well and the trainer had him fitter than he thought he did. Frankie was anxious to stay on the fresh ground, so you'll notice he stayed a bit wide and in the straight he nearly took out the grandstand! He's a delightful colt, he's gone and won well over the trip. It was the full mile and a half today and we'll leave all options open for Epsom. I think he enjoyed the ground and if Epsom was fast I don't think he'd enjoy that sort of surface. That's what the jockey felt, but there's no reason why he won't be in the Derby at this stage.
"He's different to a Golden Horn and others I have had. He's done nothing but mature and improve. I was impressed with the horse that beat him at Saint-Cloud (Dubai Mile), he ran the best Derby trial in the Guineas (finished fifth), so right now they're two horses that deserve to be right up near the top of the betting (for the Derby). We put him in the Arc on Tuesday. He's got the scope to train on at three, and four and five. Enable raced until she was six."
He added: "Frankie is in great form, he's enjoying his racing and enjoying his last year in Europe and I think he'll dabble in America again as well. He's won a 2000 Guineas and a Chester Vase, he's won an Italian Guineas and he won the Dubai Turf for us, which probably helped the piggy bank."
Dettori added: "He won very easily, it's very hard to judge horses on this ground and to know the quality of the field but he can only win by a good margin. He's a good size, he's going places."
Juddmonte's Barry Mahon said: "We're over the moon, that was great. It (this race) was sort of Plan C, but at least it's worked out and he's won and won in good style, that's the main thing. It's early days, we'll wait and see how he comes out of this and see what the ground is like.
"We'll see what way the Derby develops in the next couple of weeks. There's a good trial in York next week (Dante Stakes), so we'll see what happens there. We're in a nice position in that he's in everywhere, he's won his trial and he's fit so we can pick and choose where we want to go. It was great to see Frankie win the Guineas for us (with Chaldean) and if we could give him his last ride in the Derby we'd be very, very happy."
O'Brien is set to drop runner-up Adelaide River back in trip. The Ballydoyle handler said: "We'll probably drop him back in trip. We weren't sure about the trip for him, we thought maybe a mile and a quarter was his trip but we wanted to give him a chance and see what would happen. Obviously we'll drop him back in trip now."
Savethelastdance (8-11 favourite), under Ryan Moore, also booked her place at Epsom with a stunning wide-margin victory in the Listed Weatherbys Digital Solutions Cheshire Oaks.
The daughter of the late, great Galileo won on her seasonal return at Leopardstown last month, and continued her progress with an even better success when coming home alone by 22 lengths from There's The Door (6-1) in the Listed event. In the rain-softened ground, Savethelastdance was initially sat at the back, second from last. But coming up to the final turn, Moore brought the three-year-old filly around the outside to collar leader Sirona. But as the rest of the field floundered Savethelastdance powered through the mud and scored by a huge margin and is now the favourite for Betfred Oaks at Epsom on June 2. She is as low as 6-4 with William Hill for the Fillies' Classic and a best-priced 7-4 with Skybet.
Savethelastdance gave O'Brien a record eight success in the race, although none of his past winners have followed up at Epsom, with last year's Chester scorer Thoughts Of June finishing a distant ninth behind stable-mate Tuesday. The mighty Enable, though, was the last filly who did win both races in 2017. But even she didn't put in such a dominant performance on the Roodee as Savethelastdance.
Jockey Moore was winning the race for a sixth time and was delighted with Savethelastdance. He said: "I was very impressed, you can only be impressed by what she's done there. They kind of all gave up with half a mile to go and she was just getting going, but she gave me a very good feel – she's probably given me as good a feel in this race as the ones I've ridden (in it before). She stepped a little slow, but they went very hard early on and she just relaxed and followed them round. I thought I'd just make sure she knew what she had to do and she stretched all the way to the line and ran right through the line."
Ziggy's Phoenix (9-4 favourite) led from start to finish to land the opening to Chester's May Festival, the CAA Stellar Lily Agnes Conditions.
Richard Hannon's Kodiac filly was drawn in the plum berth of stall one and under Ryan Moore she broke well and was always in command throughout the five-furlong sprint. Balon D'Or (5-1) – trained by Hugo Palmer at former England and Liverpool FC forward Michael Owen's Manor House stables in nearby Malpas – got across from his unfavourable stall 11 to challenge Ziggy's Phoenix, but having used up plenty of energy getting across, Ziggy's Phoenix shrugged him off to win. Owned by Middleham Park Racing, Ziggy's Phoenix held off the late challenge of Ziggy's Dream (7-2) – in the same light blue Middleham colours – to score by half-a-length with Balon D'Or a further length back in third.
Ziggy's Phoenix made it two wins from three starts and may have a trip to Royal Ascot next month in her sights. Paddy Power and Betfair both quote her at 14-1 for the Queen Mary Stakes, also over 5f, at next month's Royal meeting.
Middleham Park's Mike Prince said: "Ziggy's Phoenix was smart from the stalls, she's an uncomplicated filly with plenty of speed and just bossed it from the front really. Interestingly, Ziggy's Dream might be the horse to take form the race as she missed it (the break) and finished like a train. If you ran the race again would the result be different? It might well be. We think they're both black-type fillies so that's what we'd be planning with them next. There's the National Stakes at Sandown and there's a Listed race at Vichy as well. It will probably be one of those, maybe the National Stakes for Ziggy's Phoenix. I'm sure Tim (Palin, syndicate manager) will be plotting with Richard and plotting with Alice (Haynes, trainer of Ziggy's Dream) where to go. We might keep them apart next time and they might come together again at Royal Ascot."
The George Boughey-trained Danger Alert (12-1) came from off the pace to win the tote £100K Guaranteed Placepot Every Day Handicap under Liverpool FC fan William Buick. While the David Evans-trained Radio Goo Goo (11-1), drawn in stall one, won the six-furlong Camden Pale Handicap under Ben Curtis.
