Dive in for Great Barrier Reef

August 22, 2007 - Diana Volpers The Gimcrack Stakes is a contest which has a chequered recent past having produced a few high class winners, but five of the last ten colts to have etched their name on this Group 2 contest's roll of honour failed to win another race subsequently.
 
Both Amadeus Wolf (2005) and Balmont (2003) went on to win the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes in the same season, while Rock Of Gibraltar (2001) carried all before him during the rest of his campaign and as a three-year-old, winning Group 1s as if they were going out of fashion.
 
However, this race has rarely failed to live up to its Group 2 status during the last decade. And, to be fair, this year's renewal looks pretty weak, despite the fact that both Art Advisor and likely favourite Swiss Franc bring good form to the table.
 
Consequently, take a chance on the Aidan O'Brien-trained Great Barrier Reef, who may well be up to the job on his racecourse debut. Obviously, the fact that he has yet to race in public is a concern, but he holds entries in all the top juvenile races, suggesting that he's showing the right signs at home.
 
Indeed, O'Brien has trained more top-class two-year-olds than most of us have had hot dinners, so the fact that he's willing to let the son of Mr Greeley take his chance in this without any prior experience is a good sign. Furthermore, the Ballydoyle handler has a good record in this six-furlong heat having won it twice from four attempts. Swiss Franc sets the standard on his placed efforts in the Coventry and July Stakes, form which entitles him to be favourite. It's interesting, though, that the horse that beat him in the former race at Royal Ascot, Henrythenavigator, is an O'Brien inmate, giving him a line through which he can assess the chance of Great Barrier Reef against David Elsworth's charge.
 
Art Advisor may well enjoy an uncontested lead and the form of his penultimate effort in the Norfolk Stakes at the royal meeting gives him definite claims in this event. I just wonder, however, whether he find others improving past him, since he looked pretty furnished as early as May of this year when second in maiden at this track. In essence, others have more scope.
 
Easy Target got the better of a duel with Nacho Libre at Pontefract and neither of that duo have dome anything wrong, but this represents a step up in class and they may be found wanting. Sir Gerry is also stepping up the ladder and while he disappointed when odds-on at Newmarket latest, that was a muddling race and, if building on his convincing debut win, he could have a say in this.
 
Verdict: 1pt Great Barrier Reef @ 9/2 (Paddy Power)

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