Deacon Blues destined for Group 1 glory

I was impressed with his romp at Newbury. Looks more progressive than High Standing after he won the Woki.

Clocked a fantastic time today and probably put up the best 6f performance of the year.
As long as its not too fast at Haydock he'll be very difficult to beat.

agreed very impressive, fast time and got to be a near 130 performance on official ratings based on those placed horses

I can't say I'm impressed with Fanshawe's handling of this horse. After wrongly, in my opinion, skipping the Maurice de Gheest there was the huge disappointment of a dirty scope ruling him out of the Sorint Cup.  Now I see he's entered to run on Saturday in a 5f Group 3 at Haydock with a penalty. The horse has never ran at 5f having ran at 6f his entire career and this drop in trip seems totally unnecessary to me.

I think he's just using it as a prep race for the Ascot sprint.

I agree Authorized. He is a 6f horse. Why run him over 5f with a penalty? Imagine he will be very short tomorrow and if so, I'll be laying him. As much as I rate him very highly, this is the wrong race for him, especially as the Newbury ground is drying out all the time and will be good tomorrow.

Second week im agreeing with you Johnny(hope we get the same result) it will be interesting to see how they price up the race, i like the Balding filly a lot

There are no suitable 6f races for him between now ( newbury 17/9) and ascot, which will be a full month away.
He will have to be tried at 5f and probably 7f sometime ( if just to see how he copes),good ground should be ok for him, and dettori rode him at newbury last time, so i would have thought connections would have asked his opinion.He also holds a prix l'abbaye entry (5f).Whatever happens this year, he will be an exciting prospect next year, with another winter on his back.

A lay for me also. I'm not concerned about the trip but after his last 2 performances I have him down as one likely to regress next time out and the dirty scope reinforces my view.

Was that regarding Masked Marvel, zilzal? Good work if so

The dirty scope could well have been a sign that his trip and win at the curragh took a lot out of him.
Also horses can go off pretty quickly as the cold wet weather sets in plus any horse that wins that well
over 6f at the Curragh is unlikely to be fully effective at 5f.
On the positive side he could have had enough time to get over his curragh trip now and could out class
these even at 5f. Too much speculation about this race for me and for that reason  I'm out.

Going for the Qipco sprint race.

got that well wrong!!

Deacon Blues

Well he clearly proved he's effective at 5f as well. You don't see many travel over 5f like that. I was surprised when Fanshawe said on Sprint Cup day he wasn't sure whether Deacon Blues was better than Society Rock. The visual impression to me leaves no doubts. They may go for the Abbaye now and get that deserved Group 1.

To be fair he did have a healthy advantage at the ratings. 10lbs better off with the 2nd for instance.

lokked in great nick pre-race. Had the race set up for him with the leaders going off way too fast.
Doubt the form is great, but his 6f form is and with him confirming that he's still in top nick and the
Ascot race the target he will be difficult to beat. Dream ahead is running in France, bated breath and
hoof it won't like the ground ,leaving the only credible competition likely to come from his stablemate
,society rock and Bewitched(would have a big chance, but connections haven't said anything about coming over).
The cut in price from 6/1 to 9/2 probably still leaves some value there.

I think the rain Newbury received and the poor quality of the opposition aided Deacon Blues cause. He must be close to a G1 horse on soft ground over 6f.

Well, certainly no regression there. He's holding his form very well, another fast time today, I reckon he would've been involved in that Haydock Sprint photo if he'd been ready for it and probably would've edged it imo. I'll get him next time though [;)]

think he would have won at haydock too, i've got the antepost vouchers to prove it

but jesus christ bookies, is there any need to nearly half his price for ascot after that?

we already knew he could win group 3 races on the bridle, all today proved was that he is over whatever illness kept him out of the sprint cup

i'd like to back him for ascot, but 7/2 is a bit tight considering it's a month away and he'll probably have to beat dream ahead who has already won 2 of the biggest group 1 sprints this season

Also, it is ground-reliant, the Ascot race. Deacon Blues excels when there's plenty of dig. I'd say the same about Dream Ahead. Bated Breath would prefer it like a road. You are gambling on the going. An Indian summer, fast ground, and I wouldn't want to back Deacon Blues.