Buick seen as biggest threat to Camelot’s Triple bid

Buoyed by seven Group One successes this season, he has opted to ride the battling York winner Thought Worthy as the 24-year-old rider looks to maintain his 100 per cent winning record in the world’s oldest Classic.

Victorious in the last two years with the John Gosden-trained Arctic Cosmos and Masked Marvel, the Northern racing College graduate is bidding to become the first jockey to win three successive St Legers since the incomparable Lester Piggott prevailed in the early 1970s with Nijinsky – the last horse to complete the Triple Crown – Athens Wood and Boucher.

Buick’s reasoning is this. Although it was hard to decide between Thought Worthy and stablemate Michelangelo, who will be ridden by his friend and mentor Frankie Dettori, he admired the former’s front-running tenacity when winning the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York last month – one of the most respected and significant St Leger trials.

“I left it late because I wanted to get a feel of just how both horses were at home, but it didn’t make things any easier as John Gosden has them both primed to run for their lives,” explained Buick on his online blog.

“Michelangelo breezed on Tuesday and I have Thought Worthy the same sort of spin on Wednesday, and I couldn’t split how well they were. In the end it was the overall level of form that Thought Worthy has shown which swung my decision his way.”

A full-brother to 2007 Gosden’s St Leger winner Lucarno, Thought Worthy finished 11 lengths behind Camelot in the Derby before his memorable front-running victory at York.

“Although many thought we stole the Great Voltigeur it was really down to his adaptability and courage. I think he’s better judged on that performance than the Derby,” added the jockey with characteristic insight.

“I know Camelot is going to be very hard to get by but both have the ability to bustle him up and I want to be on the one that pushes him hardest and I think that’s going to be Thought Worthy. I’ve made what I think is the form call and the right one to give Camelot a fight. I hope I’m right but if not then good luck Michelangelo.”

One person not surprised by Buick’s phenomenal success in 2012 – the jockey has as many Group One victories to his name as both Camelot and Sir Henry Cecil’s peerless Frankel – is television presenter Clare Balding.

A young Buick spent his formative years at the Balding family’s Berkshire stables – he was barely five stone at the time – and the commentator’s only criticism is the rider’s desire to put big race success before the demands of the jockeys’ championship.

“Tell him to pull his finger out!” a combative Balding told the Yorkshire Post yesterday. “My only concern is that he’s given up on the title race. I’ve had a bet on him and my father has £10 on at 
500-1 that he’ll be champion at some point soon.

“Seriously, there is a lot of Steve Cauthen about him, the way he rides. The shots of Steve from the 1980s, Will thinks and rides like him. It’s a very high compliment. Thought Worthy’s York win, controling the race from the front, it was classic Cauthen.”

Gosden’s pacemaker Dartford will be tasked with exposing any stamina flaws in Camelot, the odds-on favourite bidding to add the St Leger to his victories in the 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby. There are still limited tickets available for the most eagerly-anticipated Ladbrokes St Leger since the Queen’s Dunfermline prevailed in 1977 – Silver Jubilee year.

Camelot is the sole representative from Ballydoyle, whose trainer Aidan O’Brien is seeking a clean-sweep of English Classics in 2012, after Imperial Monarch and Chamonix were both not declared.

There is another challenger from Ireland in the shape of Tommy Carmody’s Ursa Major.

Derby runner-up Main Sequence represents David Lanigan, Encke goes for the Godolphin team under Mickael Barzalona and hugely impressive Melrose Stakes winner Guarantee takes a significant step up in class for William Haggas and Thirsk jockey Phil Makin.

The nine-runner field is completed by the Sir Henry Cecil-trained Thomas Chippendale, who carries the colours of Yorkshireman Sir Robert Ogden.

There was another confidence booster for Cecil, who is currently fighting cancer, when Wild Coco showed stamina is her forte as she outstayed her rivals in the DFS Park Hill Stakes.

Sent off the 7-4 favourite, the four-year-old took a further step forward by winning the contest known as the ‘fillies’ St Leger’.

She looked to have plenty to do three furlongs out as champion jockey Paul Hanagan kicked clear on Estimate, the Queen’s Royal Ascot winner.

However, Wild Coco was just hitting top gear inside the final furlong under Tom Queally and always looked like getting up, winning by a length-and-a-quarter. Estimate lost second on the line to Hazel Lavery.

“She’s got a high cruising speed and I didn’t want to get stopped in my run and have to build the revs up again,” said Queally.

The other Group race on the card, the Japan Racing Association Sceptre Stakes, went to the rejuvenated Sunday Times.

Peter Chapple-Hyam’s filly was second in the Cheveley Park Stakes at two, but in three runs this season had shown very little.

The 22-1 chance quickened up in smart style on Town Moor, though, to beat Godolphin’s Gamilati by a length.

“I thought she might be in the first four or five but that she might not get home as she hadn’t run for a while,” said Chapple-Hyam, less prolific since training the aforementioned Dettori’s 2007 Epsom Derby hero Authorized.

Meanwhile, Franny Norton was emotional after partnering Jeremy Noseda’s The Gold Cheongsam to victory in the Weatherbys Insurance £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes.

Liverpool-born Norton dedicated his victory to the Justice For The 96 campaign after an independent panel cleared supporters of wrong-doing during the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

“That victory isn’t for me, it’s for the Hillsborough 96 and to do it in red and white silks makes it special,” said Norton.