At The Races pundit Declan Rix is taking a swing at a Sir Michael Stoute-trained five-year-old who could line up in next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
The three-year-old star Ace Impact currently heads the market at 7/2 after French Derby success, with the likes of Hukum and Westover also towards the head of the betting.
But with the race having a wide-open feel at this stage, Rix has taken aim at Bay Bridge, who stepped up in trip with victory in the September Stakes at Kempton last time out.
And with that stamina now guaranteed as well as the Group One speed over ten furlongs, he could go well at a big price.
“He’s already won a Champion Stakes and they will try to win an Arc now,” Rix told the Weekend Winners digital show.
“As a five-year-old, he’s a bigger, stronger horse and he rarely gets his conditions. I think he needs genuine give in the ground to show his absolute best.
“Last time out on a kinder surface at Kempton on the all-weather over 12 furlongs, I thought he was brilliant.
“Candleford is a good, solid yardstick and has been in good order recently and he beat him stiff showing that he stayed the trip well in a decent time.
“He’s by New Bay who was placed in an Arc once upon a time and although his dam was a sprinter over six furlongs, if you go further back through the pedigree it’s from a strong Aga Khan middle distance line.
“He’s unexposed over the trip. Finally he gets some cut in the ground and could show his best.
“There’s not a lot of pace this year and if we got a tactical running of the Arc and he’d sit in the first three or four, you are hoping that pace over ten furlongs should see him challenge.”