Baaeed favourite to emulate Frankel and end career unbeaten

Beating Baaeed has proved impossible up to now and Europe’s top-rated racehorse is a heavy odds-on favourite to bring his unbeaten career to a perfect conclusion at Ascot on Saturday.

A decade after Frankel brought his own epic career to an unbeaten conclusion in the QIPCO Champion Stakes the stage looks set for the best horse since to do the same.

A maximum of nine opponents, including four from Ireland, are in the mix to take on Baaeed after Monday’s acceptance stage.

Principal among them appears to be Godolphin’s Adayar, winner last year of the Derby and King George, although there’s no disputing the star attraction of the 12th Champions Day programme.

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Bookmakers quickly made Baaeed a 1-4 favourite amid widespread expectation he will successfully emulate Frankel’s four year old campaign in 2012.

Victorious in the Lockinge, Queen Anne and Sussex Stakes at a mile, Baaeed put up his highest-rated performance to date in August’s Juddmonte International.

That six-and-a-half length defeat of Mishriff earned him an official 135 rating, the highest since Frankel reached 140.

Despite the scale of the task involved in overcoming Baaeed, Noel Meade has kept open the option of taking him on with his own Group 1 winner Helvic Dream.

Jim Bolger’s Mac Swiney, third to Sealiway in last year’s Champion Stakes, is also among the outsiders while Aidan O’Brien has left in both Stone Age and High Definition.

Baaeed’s rider Jim Crowley said on Monday: “It’s a proper race. Adayar is a Derby and King George winner and we probably haven’t seen the best of Bay Bridge. The others probably have a lot to do.

“I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully we have a nice dry week, not too much rain.

“I knew going up to a mile and a quarter would see the best of him and he put the race to bed very quickly at York. He’s had an easy run all year really. He hasn’t really had a tough race. I’m sure I’ll have a tougher one on Saturday.”

Ground conditions at Ascot are currently good to soft and track authorities don’t envisage much change before Saturday’s official conclusion to the British flat season.

“Currently I think we’ll probably be a mixture of good to soft and soft on Saturday. But if we get the higher end of rainfall totals then we might be soft all over.

“But that will be in the balance until the end of the week. We could be good ground by Thursday morning and then softening again after that,” clerk of the course Chris Stickels reported.

Jadoomi, winner of the Boomerang Mile over Irish Champions Weekend, has been supplemented into the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Inspiral is another heavy favourite for that mile highlight which has Aidan O’Brien’s Tenebrism and Raadobarg from Johnny Murtagh’s yard remaining among the 10 horses still left in.

Tenebrism holds an option too in the Champion Sprint on Saturday, a race that also includes Fozzy Stack’s Castle Star.

Paddy Twomey is targeting the Fillies & Mares contest with Rosscarbery who could clash with Willie McCreery’s consistent Insinuendo.

Ballydoyle’s exciting Irish Cesarewitch winner Waterville is set to take the step up to Group 2 company in the Long Distance Cup where ground conditions are likely to decide if he clashes with the top-class stayer Trueshan.

The latter has to have ease in the surface and Trueshan’s trainer Alan King said: “I am a wee bit concerned looking at the forecast, to be honest.

“He is in good form but we will need rain and I do have the option of waiting for the [Prix] Royal Oak the following week in which we’d almost certainly get soft ground if we have to wait.”