They are unlikely to meet, but Golden Horn and American Pharoah will once again share the limelight when both equine superstars take to the turf during the next seven days.
Golden Horn takes in his fifth race in 14 weeks when he lines up against nine rivals under Frankie Dettori in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot tonight.
His performance will be followed up next Saturday when America’s Triple Crown darling takes on Godolphin’s Frosted once again in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park for what will be his sixth race since March 14.
Officially, Golden Horn is a better horse after he was handed a rating of 130 in the aftermath of his win in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown this month, which is just 2lbs ahead of American Pharoah.
It is a rating that matches that of the great Frankel at the same stage of his career.
Ratings never tell the whole story, and one of the reasons why American Pharoah lags behind Golden Horn is that the crop of three-year-old colts in America at this stage of the season are considered no match for those in Europe.
By beating The Grey Gatsby over 2,000 metres in the Eclipse Stakes, Golden Horn showed that as an English Derby winner he also had a potent turn of foot.
It also highlighted that he could force the pace, something he had not done even in training and a tactic that may be employed by Dettori tonight.
In short, Golden Horn may take a stride or two to get going, but he is very quick, can sustain his pace for long periods and has the courage to battle at the end of his races.
He clearly has a strong constitution with such a busy schedule, too, but it is what is between his ears, according to his trainer, that marks out the son of Cape Cross, the sire of Sea The Stars.
“His temperament is a big part of it. He’s pretty laid-back,” John Gosden said. “If you look at any athlete, they have the mental strength and ability to relax.
“He might be fresh and keen early like he was at Epsom, but that shows he just wants to get on with the job. He has a great mind on him and a great physique.
“A key factor is that there are different ways of riding him. You can ride him out the back, close to the pace, on the pace, however you want.
“He is a straightforward horse to train. He has a laid-back mind like his father.”
American Pharoah is not as straightforward. He wears earplugs, and during the parade ahead of the Kentucky Derby he got agitated by the 170,000 crowd at Churchill Downs.
When he heard them roar him home down the stretch, he slammed on the brakes and slowed down.
American Pharoah is a month-and-a-half older than Golden Horn, and although he has yet to settle down mentally his huge stride and sheer athleticism make him very difficult to beat on American dirt.
American Pharoah uses a stride of around 25 feet to generate a punishing gallop at speed that perhaps only the injured Shared Belief might match in America. Not only that, but he does so looking as if he is barely going faster than a canter.
Before the Kentucky Derby, American Pharoah put in a piece of work that astounded respected clocker Gary Young.
At the time, Young said: “He stays in the air longer than any horse and you get the feeling that there’s not one gear left, but he may have two, three or four gears.”
What we do not yet know about American Pharoah is whether he is good enough to take on the older horses in America, something that we will presumably find out at the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
For Golden Horn, his biggest test comes tonight when he is set to face the softest ground in his career after it rained heavily all day yesterday.
Whatever the conditions, Luca Cumani, trainer of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s Postponed, one of Golden Horn’s rivals, says he believes there can only be one winner tonight.
“In theory the race is a foregone conclusion as Golden Horn is the best horse of his generation,” Cumani said.
“While the other horses are genuine Group 1 performers, they cannot be called the best of their generation. Golden Horn should win and the rest of us should be fighting it out for second best. It is a horse race, though, so we’ll see.”
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