Emissary bids to advertise Derby claims in Cocked Hat Stakes

Coral/EBF Cocked Hat Stakes (Listed) | 1m3f | ITV4/RTV

Emissary faces just three rivals as he goes on trial for next month's Investec Derby and certainly appears to be bred for the job as a half-brother to 2010 Derby winner Workforce.

Just like his illustrious relative, Emissary won his only start as a juvenile and, despite being a laid back character at home, his trainer Hugo Palmer is hopeful of a big show on his comeback.

The son of Kingman has been away for a racecourse gallop to put an edge on his fitness having made a winning debut win over 1m1½f at Wolverhampton last October.

Palmer said: "We're happy with Emissary and took him to Chelmsford the other day for a gallop and he went well but he's not one to overdo himself, just like his brother I'm told. He's short on experience and we are running him here to see if he's a Derby horse or not."

The Classic-winning trainer added: "He's not one that has been ready to run for weeks but he's now ready to start off and this is very much a trial."

John Gosden: runs recent Yarmouth winner CelestranCredit: Edward Whitaker

The only runner with race fitness on his side is the John Gosden-trained Celestran, who is on a hat-trick following his comeback success in a handicap at Yarmouth 11 days ago.

Gosden said: "Celestran did it nicely at Yarmouth but there are not many races these three-year-olds can run in before they have to take on their elders. He's a progressive horse and has a chance in a tight race."

Fellow Newmarket raider Fiji has had this race on his radar since landing a 1m2f maiden on his belated debut at Lingfield in January - since when he has been acquired by Qatar Racing.

David Redvers, racing manager to Qatar Racing, said of the David Simcock-trained colt: "I know David is happy this race has been saved as he has had it earmarked for some time. He's a progressive horse going forward."

Khalifa Sat, already a course winner thanks to a maiden success on his second start last September, completes the quartet for in-form trainer Andrew Balding and rider Tom Marquand.

David Milnes

The Cocked Hat will contain clues - but not necessarily for the Derby

Troy is the only horse to complete the Cocked Hat-Derby double in 1979 and the Listed contest is probably better thought of as an alternate King Edward VII Stakes.

These are horses that will keep developing into the autumn and in many cases next year. Its most famous winners in recent history are Pentire, Dubai Millennium, Rewilding and Masked Marvel. All but the last of those, who won the St Leger, had their career-defining triumphs at four.

Over the last ten years, out of the 54 runners in the Cocked Hat, only five have gone on to run in the Derby. All had won this race, and two even managed to place at Epsom - Storm The Stars and Rewilding were both third.

The conclusion is that above-average winners of the Cocked Hat (the race-winning standard is a touch below 107 on RPRs) can gain a late ticket to the Derby, but that is its full reach as a trial. All of that being so, that there are just four runners this year, and they can boast just seven previous runs between them, is counter-intuitively unremarkable.

History suggests that the pay-off for keeping a close eye on the Cocked Hat is probably months away.

Keith Melrose

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