Shaquille hot favourite to cement sprint star status at Haydock

Shaquille is a hot favourite to cement his credentials as Europe’s outstanding sprinter in Saturday’s Betfair Sprint Cup in Haydock.

Despite fluffing the start in both Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup and the July Cup in Newmarket, the star English speedster wound up winning both Group One contests impressively.

The Julie Camacho-trained colt is a general evens favourite to make it a top-flight hat-trick after Monday’s latest acceptance stage had 22 other horses left in the Haydock feature.

They include the supplementary entries Mill Stream and Believing while Aidan O’Brien has kept his options open by leaving in The Antarctic and Aesop’s Fables.

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Haydock’s Sprint Cup is a rare gap in O’Brien’s Group One CV and the race generally has been elusive for Irish hopes.

Only Tom Hogan’s Gordon Lord Byron, a winner 10 years ago, has won the race for Ireland in the last half-century.

The two Ballydoyle entries also remain in the mix for Sunday’s Al Basti Flying Five at the Curragh.

Jane Chapple-Hyam has opted to pitch Mill Stream into the highest level after winning a Group Three in Deauville on his last start.

“Mill Stream has come out of his Deauville race in good order, so we have decided to take the opportunity to run him again while he is in good form as there are no other options for him until Champions Day,” said Chapple-Hyam on Monday.

Jessica Harrington’s Ocean Quest doesn’t feature in the Haydock entries and neither does the high-class English filly Azure Blue whose next appearance could come at Ascot next month.

Azure Blue had to miss York’s Nunthorpe Stakes with a foot issue and her trainer Michael Dods has been forced to rule her out of Haydock and the Flying Five.

“We’ve had a bit of an issue. She seems all right now, but we just didn’t think she’d be ready,” said the Darlington-based trainer.

“She had the foot problem before York and then she had a bit of an ulcer problem and we just had to deal with it. We’re happy enough with her, she just wouldn’t have been ready to run this weekend.”

Azure Blue will now either contest the British Champions Sprint on October 21st or be roughed off until next season.

Dods added: “If we didn’t have her for Ascot we probably wouldn’t be bothering, I’d probably leave her and have her ready for the start of next season. That would be the plan. It’s disappointing, but there’s always another day and we’ll just have to wait until we see her at 100 per cent.”

In other news, Ascot’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes next month is one of several options for top French colt Big Rock as he attempts to finally land a Group One prize.

Runner up in the French Derby and Prix Jacques La Marois, the Christopher Head trained star again had to settle for second in Sunday’s Prix Du Moulin behind Sauterne.

“He’s very consistent with his performance and is always improving a little bit. But we have a hard time of course against a horse with a certain turn of foot being on our back and we are always vulnerable to that kind of strategy.

“It is a bit frustrating because he is really worthy of getting a Group One win but he is just missing out for now,” Head said.

“I think he’s pretty versatile and can do pretty much whatever we want and we can adjust strategy accordingly. It’s still an option [Ascot] of course and we are considering all options, but it is a bit early to say right now,” he added.