Bookies fear victories by Gosden duo could hit them hard

Big race wins by two of trainer John Gosden’s star performers Enable and Logician could cost bookies dearly over the next three weeks.

Gosden, 68, who has won over 3,000 races worldwide, bids for a third Arc De Triomphe victory with Enable in Paris on October 6, while his three-year-old Logician is hot favourite for next Saturday’s St Leger at Doncaster.

Discussing Enable’s prospects with reporters, Gosden said: “It is shaping up to be a proper Arc, which is what you want. However, I expect Enable to be pushed all the way by some mighty opponents.

“She is a slightly silly price at 10-11 and that doesn’t reflect the quality of the opposition. Certainly Japan is a horse I’ve mentioned as a danger, I thought he was impressive the way he quickened in the Juddmonte International [at York].

“Then there is Prix Du Jockey Club winner Sottsaas who in my book put in the best performance by a three-year-old this year. They rate mighty opponents the three-year-olds as they’re getting weight.”

In ante-post Arc betting, Japan is on offer at 5-1 with Crystal Ocean at 13-2 and 8-1 available about French hope, Sottsaas.

Another runner who Gosden fears is the Charlie Appleby-trained Ghaiyyath who ran out a 14 lengths winner of the grade 1 Grosser Preis von Baden over the Arc distance of 2,400m at Baden-Baden in Germany. This was the four year-old’s first try over 2,400m and the winning jockey, William Buick, labelled the son of Dubawi as an “absolute monster”.

Regarding Enable’s present well-being, Gosden commented: “I think we have her where we would like to have her. At York [in the Yorkshire Oaks], they came and joined her and she said  ‘OK, you want to race and off she went’.”

Pundits have rated John Gosden’s three-year-old, Logician, as the likely St Leger winner for some time and punters are certain to couple him in hefty doubles with Enable.

Logician heads the St Leger market at 5-4 with Sir Dragonet second favourite at 3-1 with Il Paradiso and Sir Ron Priestly quoted at 7-1 and 11-1 respectively.

Given his impressive recent win in the grade 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury, it is a surprise to see Martyn Meade’s runner, Technician, one of the outsiders at 14-1.

This could be the result of a virus which caused Meade to withdraw some of his proposed runners last weekend. However, the Irish trainer allayed the fears saying “there's no need to worry about him, he’s in flying form at the moment”.

On the local racing front, the sport has suffered another loss with the passing of Gauteng trainer Brian Wiid.

Despite not training horses which were bred in the purple, Wiid held his own in the training ranks for over three decades with his best horse being the grade 1 winner Cardinal Fury.

SA racing has lost a number of talented trainers in 2019 including Neil Bruss, Leon Erasmus, Johan van Eck and Stanley Ferreira.