To get a position yeah, like most them, then he dropped it
And was left alone, to do what he wanted

It puts him close, on paper, to the best 3yo not close to being the best 3yo, for whatever reason.
One of the Serious Contender form lines has to be open to question, imv, but which one.?
His second to Merchant also saw him beat Pantile Warrior, a horse with absolutely no classic pretensions, by a neck.
As for Merchant having “plenty more progression to come” after six runs and Lambourn to have little or no room for further progression after one more run would seem somewhat spurious.

“Fallen” over the line?  Are you having a laugh?  “You would have thought”?
It will be interesting to see your evidence, if it ever materialises.

Merchant 20-14-10/1 with 365 for the leger since Sunday.

Add to it what HH says :

"He's very well after Ascot and the plan is very much to go to the Gordon, as long as William is happy with him, and then on to the Great Voltigeur at York's Ebor meeting," Herbert said. "It's possible he could be a St Leger horse and it's a fabulous race, but is going a mile and six the right move for him? We'll see. We have to take it one step at a time in mind for the future.

Gets beat in one of the trials and the Leger a bye bye!

Don’t you just hate all the bs? Say this race is the target or not!

Yes boring, as in he doesn’t set anyone’s pulses racing unless they are on at odds on and see him almost get turned over by a stablemate.

Thats a fair thing to say as no one is currently talking him up for KG or Arc.

I see things differently.  He drew on his gut reserves and proved he was the best on the day.  A different style of win but a classic win.  And, if classics and Gp1’s are boring then we’d best tell three hundred odd years of class assessment that their work is irrelevant.

You know very well there are group 1’s and then G1’s.

The Tatts has been floating on that verge for ages. Often a benefit for AOB’s older horses.

Very exciting.  It is what competition is all about.  Bring out that extra which wins the prize.  See off all comers.
The horse has now won classics going right and left handed.  He has won by leading and seeing off all comers, the leading and coming again.
Nothing at all unexciting about that for me.  It may even turn out that going right handed makes him a little less effective.
Whatever he does next doesn’t make him ineffectual because we haven’t been told yet where he goes next.
He’s no Dancing Brave but then D.B. is no Lambourn.
Hugely interested in where Serious Contender goes next.  Can’t see them meeting again but never say never.
Be lucky.

Seems you’re quite attached to the horse, can’t see that he isn’t sexy. Is he a sexy breeding prospect?

People were saying he’s more for the NH stud.

Think he can drop back to 10f?

No one has discussed that.

Yes you’ll all be on no doubt. Going into that Ascot handicap he had a good draw by stats, every dog was barking about him. Now they are trying g to put people away as to where he goes next.

The fellas on the RP preview had said that they prefer betting shorties in the Ascot handicaps, than the G1’s because it’s almost a gimmie (good thing) like a Mullins shorty in a handicap at Chelts.

Maybe Haggas knows the next step is a bigger one than punters expect because a 40/1 shot the night before gave the Derby winner a fright and franked the form from Ascot.

For me the Irish Derby looked an odd race, though we both said that the form was franked by LG TS.

T
Lambourn however didn’t ever look comfortable and I wonder - had said it above if the expected that big a run from SC.

Who I also said on that run would have gone close in Paris on the 13th July.

Who do they run there now? Because it’s sometimes the place where their Leger runners stretch their legs.

I agree.

Take AOB he had a horse that was well and run it.
I can understand that they’d waver over taking on older horses with Merchant, but in France he’d face beaten horses from the PDJC. Camille P was given the lowest rating in years, but that’s misleading as he won cheeky.
Trinty C franked the form and was impressive I thought at Ascot, form that linked it to the Derby & Stanhope through Tornado Alert.

The Bradfords were brave with Connigree in the Gold Cup sometimes you have to be, but there’s other options.

Eccomics has been looked after but is missing, time waits for no man as they say.

Thanks Delashay, will have a look.

Thank you so much.  Your valuable contributions are always eagerly devoured.  Then the body does its work. 

Calandagan looks a good thing for KG on g/f   just bring him wide and he will do any  OB horse.

Calandagan looks a good thing for KG on g/f   just bring him wide and he will do any  OB horse.

Is he a touch soft Howard?? Travels, quickens, then flattens out?? A really fast 1m 1/4 ???
Jury’s out? If everything falls right, then Yezh

Calandgan has a one long acceleration, as Dupre used to describe some of his stayers such as Americain, Dolniya, Shareta…. It’s a trait of the Aga horses.

I successfully bet against Calandagan  in the Sheema Turf because I knew he’d be held up and something else would get first run on him.

Pointed out the same would happen again despite a smaller field in the Coronation.

Race reading comes in handy before a race, hence two winners one being 14/1 who was doubled up with another @ 14/1  on World Cup night in the Dubai Turf, formally Duty Free.

From Graffard direct from the Anti Post forum

Mickaël Barzalona had only one wish: “Not to be too far from Adventure.” And he succeeded. In the wake of Christophe Ferland’s mare, the jockey of the Aga Khan Studs had the one everyone considered their main rival in his line of sight and could ensure that she did not take too much field. But by focusing on a single opponent, Calandagan also took the risk of seeing the animator slip away when approaching the home straight.

What price for Lambourn not seeing another racecourse in public? He's over-achieved courtesy of the inflated potentials by his connections of his tablemates ie The Lion In Winter and Delacroix. I think the prevailing fast ground at The Curragh was a significant influencer of the time recorded.

I think AOB was talking up his potential when he mentioned the King George and the ARC as possible targets.