Oncoming Force

ONCOMING FORCE 
With the “Power” pair of sprinters out of the way in today’s G2 Qipco British Champions Sprint S. at Ascot, some of the others in this category have an opportunity to come to the fore, and G Force (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) holds sway after his success in the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup. Beating the previous year’s winner Gordon Lord Byron (Ire) (Byron {GB}) in clear-cut fashion in that Sept. 6 highlight, Middleham Park Racing’s sophomore was making up for an unlucky sixth in the five-furlong G1 Nunthorpe S. at York Aug. 22 as he established himself in the premier league. Trainer David O’Meara told PA Sport, “He’s better than anything I’ve trained before. He has a lot of ability. If he turns up with the same form as at Haydock, he’ll be very difficult to beat.” Gordon Lord Byron has since finished second in Longchamp’s G1 Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs on Arc day and thrives in testing conditions, as he proved when winning last year’s Sprint Cup and the G1 George Ryder S. over 7 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Mar. 29. “He’s a very tough and consistent horse and has been running well all year against good horses in good races,” jockey Wayne Lordan told PA Sport. “The ground is going to be very soft on Saturday, but he has won a Group 1 on heavy ground.” Others that applies to are the July 12 G1 July Cup second and third Tropics (Speightstown) and Gregorian (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}), respectively, and also the talented filly Viztoria (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}). Warming up for this with a confidence-boosting win in the Listed Waterford Testimonial S. over this trip at The Curragh on Sunday, she is another to represent the Eddie Lynam stable and only needs to improve slightly to better her third placing in this 12 months ago. “She’s come out of Sunday’s Curragh win in very good form and ate up well straight after the race,” her conditioner said. “It wouldn’t be ideal bringing her out again so quickly, but we haven’t been able to run her over the summer because of the fast ground so we had to take the chance of running her last weekend. The reason for her light campaign this season has just been the ground–she hasn’t had any physical issues. She finished third in this race last year and I simply don’t know if she is better now than she was then.”