Ten Sovereigns and Fairyland strengthen claims for honours

Ten Sovereigns and Fairyland boosted their chances last weekend of being honoured with Cartier Racing Awards at the annual Dorchester Hotel ceremony on November 13.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained pair, who landed the Middle Park and Cheveley Park – both Group 1s – at Newmarket on Saturday, now lie joint-third and second respectively in the Two-Year-Old Colt and Two-Year-Old Filly categories.

Ten Sovereigns, who took his unbeaten record to three with a half-length defeat of Jash, is 16 points behind leader Advertise, while his stablemate Fairyland, neck conqueror of The Mackem Bullet, is ten points adrift of Skitter Scatter.

Roaring Lion is 14 points clear of the retired Alpha Centauri in the race to be crowned Horse Of The Year, and 70 ahead of Saxon Warrior, also retired – in the Three-Year-Old Colt category.

The John Gosden-trained star is due to run next in the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot, but also has two options at the Breeders’ Cup, the Turf and Classic.

A huge weekend for European racing approaches, with the two-day Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting at Longchamp, which could have a considerable bearing on some of the Cartier categories, including Sprinter, for which four horses cannot be separated on 48 points – Battaash, Brando, Havana Grey and Merchant Navy.

The prestigious awards were established in 1991 to reward excellence in horseracing. The eight awards are delivered through a combination of points earned by horses in Pattern races (30 per cent), combined at the end of season with the opinions of a panel of racing journalists/handicappers (35 per cent) and votes from readers of the Racing Post and Daily Telegraph, plus ITV Racing viewers (35 per cent).

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