'European Road To The Kentucky Derby' Conditions Stakes
Charlie Appleby and Godolphin have won this race with both Notable Speech (2024) and Opera Ballo (2025) and so Hidden Force had some lofty shoes to fill when he stepped out on to the polytrack at Kempton on Wednesday evening. He had been backed into Even money favouritism when he made his debut in December and had eventually rewarded that faith as he got on top in the closing stages with the fastest final 2 furlong splits in 11.03 and 11.19s to win by a length and three-quarters. That form was working out reasonably well with both the 4th and 6th placed horses winning races, but it was a winter novice race and Hidden Force needed to improve to win on Wednesday evening. He certainly did that as he ran out a relatively comfortable winner under William Buick despite being quite slow to leave the stalls.
We can’t take too much from the data when trying to analyse a jockey’s body language, but William Buick exuded so much confidence in the closing stages at Kempton that it is hard to ignore. Hidden Force took 7.8s to reach 30 mph when the stalls opened, but the small field and the steady nature of the early pace allowed him to quickly recover and once brought wide to make his challenge as they approached the cut away, it became clear that he was going to win in the manner that his odds of 1/4 might suggest. Hidden Force recorded a late speed figure of 39.16 mph, significantly faster than the 38.71 mph recorded by the runner-up (Venetian Prince) as he eased clear with the fastest final 2 furlongs in the field. This was an educational ride from William Buick, who gave his mount plenty of time to respond under a hands ride and Hidden Force responded readily. Venetian Prince has an official rating of 87, whilst the 3rd placed Tadej has a rating of 105 and won the G3 Prix de Cabourg at Deauville in August. This was his first start for 167 days and he probably ran some way below that rating, but the data would at least suggest that the placed horses have run to marks around 90 and yet Hidden Force was able to dispatch them with ease. He hit a top speed of 40.78 mph and there is a definite sense that he may well have gone faster if William Buick had needed him to. In his post-race interview with Racing TV Buick implied that he felt Hidden Depth had a lot of improvement left in him and that he felt that he would continue to improve throughout the season, but that he felt he would be best to stay at a mile for now.
Hidden Force is a Frankel Colt out of the UAE 1,000 Guineas winner Winter Lightning. His Dubawi half-sister Dancing Goddess also began her career with success on the All-Weather at Kempton and she went on to win the Listed Prix Casimir Delamarre at Paris Longchamp. At this stage of his career, I would say that a win in pattern company would be a minimum aim for Charlie Appleby’s Colt and inevitable comparisons will be made with both Notable Speech and Opera Ballo as a result of him winning the same race. For what it’s worth, he ran a slower time than both of them, although this was the smallest field to go to post for this race since its inception in 2018. It’s not easy trying to write copy about Flat racing at this time of year. Despite the fact that the new turf season is less than a month away, everyone’s mind is on Cheltenham and although last Friday did bring the spotlight on to the All-Weather, I will perfectly understand if you simply bookmark this piece and come back to it in a few weeks time. However, the performance of Hidden Force should not be underestimated and I will be very surprised if he isn’t one of the 3-year-old prospects that we are talking about when the Classic trials come around in April.