Sir Mark Prescott, Newmarket’s longest-serving trainer having held a licence since 1971, will be double-handed as he tries to win the Betfred Cesarewitch for the first time at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse on Saturday (8th October).
This historic two and a quarter mile heritage handicap, the second leg of the Autumn Double, has attracted a full field of 34 runners and two reserves, which is hardly surprising given that they will be competing for a gigantic total prize fund of £250,000.
Prescott will be represented by both the Group 2 Doncaster Cup third, St Michel, with his weight of 8st 6lbs the 33rd of the 34 runners to make it into the field, and Sea Of Heaven, a winner over two miles at Ascot in July and unfortunate in his two subsequent starts, with a weight of 9st 1lb.
St Michel will be ridden as usual by Luke Morris and has been allocated a wide draw in stall 32, while Sea Of Heaven will be partnered by Andrea Atzeni and will break from the inside berth, stall 1.
Other leading candidates include Starchitect (8st 10lbs), a classy handicap hurdler for David Pipe last winter bidding to take advantage of his lower rating on the flat, and Hughie Morrison’s Sweet Selection (8st 8lbs), a three-time handicap winner during the summer who was two places behind St Michel in the Doncaster Cup.
“It’s a relief that St Michel got into the Betfred Cesarewitch. He’s been fine since his Doncaster Cup run though he’s a pretty fit horse so I haven’t done much with him since.”
“It’s comforting that he is 15 pounds well in on official handicap figures, but I think that Sweet Selection is just as well treated and I wish St Michel was drawn a bit lower – the records suggest that it is pretty hard to win from out there.”
“He wants fast ground and, if he did win, however pleased I would be for myself I would take even greater pleasure that he is owned and bred by Mr Pearce, who is 97 years old and lives in Newmarket.”
“Sea Of Heaven has been running excellently all year and had excuses the last twice – nothing went right for him in the Shergar Cup and then he was sandwiched coming out of the stalls at Chester. Conditions on Saturday should be fine for him, he has just got to settle and I’m very lucky to have secured Andrea Atzeni to ride him.”
“It’s a race that I have a bad record in, especially when compared to my good record in the other leg of the Autumn Double] the Cambridgeshire. St Michel has followed the same path as Alleluia did [back in 2001] but she won the Doncaster Cup and would have probably won the Cesarewitch too but for fracturing her pelvis during the race.”
