PRETENDRE MIGHT BE OVER-RATED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 4

PRETENDRE MIGHT BE OVER-RATED

The English colts must hold the 1966 Epsom Derby. Otherwise, the message will get through to die most obtuse observer that there is something wrong with English racing.

For the last four years they have ceded the race with little semblance of resistance to colts from France or Ireland.

Though the 1965 two-year-old champion was a fast colt trained in Ireland. Young Emperor, this year’s prospects are a little brighter. The top two English colts in the Free Handicap, Pretendre and Chariottown, are both bred for the Derby distance. Pretendre won four of his five races after his initial outing. His fame derives from the last two, the Dewhurst Stakes and Observer Gold Cup, two of the most significant classic trials for two-year-olds. These two races give him a nominal prestige, but in the content of the classics we have to consider how much he achieved in winning them. At that point the first element of doubt creeps in.. In both races Pretendre was followed home by the same three horses, Le Cordonnier, Khalekan and Pick Me Up. There is no great difference between their running on each occasion. In the Dewhurst Pretendre won comfortably by half a

length from Khalekan. Le Cordonnier. who gave 41b to both, was four lengths away third, and Pick Me Up was fifth, beaten some five lengths. On Even Terms In the Observer Gold Cup. in which they all met on level terms, one might have expected Le Cordonnier to improve his position. In fact he moved into second place ahead of

Khalekan and one length behind Pretendre. Pick Me Up was sixth, again five lengths behind Pretendre. Pretendre’s eminence then depends very largely on the talents of the other three. None unfortunately had had much racing earlier, and only Le Cordonnier had won a race.

Immediately before the Dewhurst Pretendre ran in a nursery handicap at Sandown. Future Derby winners do not

often run in handicaps, but if they do. as Tulyar did, they generally win. Pretendre. however, was beaten by a stablemate, St Puckle, which was unplaced in his two later races- . n Pretendre’s sire, Doutelle. by Prince Chevalier out of the Cesarewitch winner, Above Board, won all his races at three except the Derbv, in which he was unplaced. At four he was also beaten when he tackled high class opposition, in the King George VI Stakes and the Ascot Gold Cup. Sandown Repeat Doutelle, which died prematurely has not bred a classic winner and one would not instinctively expect him to do so, but less likely sires have produced Derby winners and simply on his pedigree, which is loaded with stamina, one cannot exclude Pretendre. The possibility exists, however, that he is flattered by the fact that he won two big races. It is his earlier defeat at Sandown which inspires the doubt.

Le Cordonnier, evidently, though not greatly, inferior on his form so far, is more stylishly bred, by the Prix de I’Arc de Triomphe winner, Saint Crespin, out of a Honey-

way mare, which w r as a sprinter. He is probably better suited to the 2000 Guineas than is Pretendre, and though it is not certain that he will stay a mile and a half, he probably will. (All Rights Reserved)

The first of a 12article series in which NIGEL GEE discusses leading contenders for this season’s English classic races.