Hi °C | Lo °C Sea The Stars wrote his name in racing’s history books by becoming the first horse since Nashwan in 1989 to win the 2000 Guineas and Derby double.
How good is the John Oxx three-year-old and where will he appear next?
First of all, he has proved he ranks alongside the very best even though it was the slowest Derby time since High Chapparal in 2002 and has been officialy rated at only 124, the same mark as New Approach when he won last year but who later went on to achieve a figure in the high 130s.
That leaves Sea The Stars currently behind five Derby winners in the last decade but of course there is a long way to go before the season ends and his rating can be expected to rise substantially if beating his elders in the likes of the Eclipse Stakes, King George VI Stakes or the Arc.
Aidan O’Brien will be disappointed at having the second (Fame and Fortune), third (Masterothehorse), fourth (Rip Van Winkle) and fifth (Golden Sword) but not the winner.
But he can only blame himself for that because his team played right into Mick Kinane’s hands.
The pace was never strong enough to really test the stamina limits of Sea The Stars and hence he was able to cruise to victory at will.
No doubt if the Oxx horse goes to the Curragh at the end of the month for the Irish Derby, O’Brien will adopt different tactics and already jockey Seamie Heffernan is talking about reversing the Epsom result and admitting he got it wrong in that at no stage was Fame And Glory ahead of the winner.
Whether Sea The Stars lines up at the Curragh will depend very much on the ground.
Don’t be surprised if Oxx waits for the Eclipse instead which comes a week later — the same race Nashwan went for after his Classic double two decades ago.
Victory in the Eclipse, which is the ideal race for Sea The Stars (5-4), would see him take a major notch up the ratings ladder with the King George, the Arc and Breeders’ Cup Classic to come in Santa Anita in November.
Forget about the Triple Crown bid which would mean having to win the St Leger at Doncaster as the trainer is not keen to test the horse’s stamina over 1m 6f.
The horse is also 3-1 for the King George which is a viable target in July, 4-1 for the Arc and 6-1 to win at Santa Anita.
Federer will Slam door on Sampras this year
Every tennis lover will be delighted with Roger Federer’s victory in the French Open — at long last.
He therefore completes the Grand Slam set and joins Pete Sampras on a record 14 Slam triumphs.
Federer enters the Hall of Fame as one of only five to win all the big tournaments and arguably now stands as the greatest player of all time.
Wimbledon is next on his agenda and he will be keen to regain that particular crown which he lost last year to Rafael Nadal.
The layers go 5-4 Federer to do so and 4-6 for him to win his 15th Slam which is the better bet as it also takes in the US Open.
But there will be those keen to lump on that Wimbledon price as Nadal is doubtful with a knee injury.
Nadal, who was 13-8 at one point to hold on to his Wimbledon title, is now as big as 7-2.
Federer is 5-1 to win again next year at Roland Garros in Paris but don’t get too excited about that as the absence of Nadal in the final certainly made all the difference.
Blue Square saw their odds of 20-1 cut by half on Federer to win Wimbledon, the US and the Aussie Opens which would mean holding all titles at the same time.
The only others to have done so are Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Andre Agassi.
Wimbledon prices: 5-4 Federer; 7-2 Nadal, Murray, 15-2 Djokovic; 14-1 Tsonga; 25-1 Del Potro; 28-1 Roddick; 66-1 Verdasco; 125-1 Sion; 150-1 Cilic.
Wembley could shop at Tesco
The FA spent so much money on the new Wembley Stadium, that they’re now looking at flogging the stadium’s naming rights to help cover the growing costs.
A sponsorship deal will see the stadium re-named to include corporate branding along with the ‘Wembley’ name.
There seems no shortage of corporate bodies keen to jump on board and Paddy Power have Tesco leading their betting market at 7-4.
Whether Tesco Wembley has the PR snazziness, is open to doubt but then again, not many of Tesco’s rivals are standouts either.
My money would be on Nationwide at 5-1.
Naming rights to Wembley (Paddy Power): 7-4 Tesco; 4-1 Barclays; 5-1 Nationwide; 11-2 Carlsberg; 8-1 Nike, Coca Cola. 10-1 bar.
