'Hopefully he can be a Commonwealth Cup horse next year' - Archie Watson full of praise for Electrolyte

Electrolyte came out on the wrong end of a bob of the head when denied by Rashabar in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot and it was a desperately close thing again at the end of the Group 3 Prix Eclipse.

This time fortune smiled on Wathnan's colt, who made the most of his rail draw under Mickael Barzalona to deny Polyvega by a nose.

It made for an anxious few minutes at Newmarket for the watching Archie Watson, who said: "They were taking their time with the camera angles and I thought ‘poor horse, if he’s been done again’. But it’s fantastic. He’s very talented and it's brilliant to be able to reward the support of Wathnan Racing, for which we're hugely gratetful.

"He deserved that and I think we’re learning more about him. We stepped him up to seven furlongs at Goodwood, but I think he showed there that coming back to six furlongs was the right thing. I think six furlongs on good ground is going to be his thing."

Watson added: "We won this race with Eddie’s Boy and he went back three weeks later for the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte where he just got beaten by Charyn, which ended up being a very good race. 

"That is the most obvious option [for Electrolyte] but Mickael did say to me that he wouldn’t be running him if the ground was heavy. 

"If the ground was like today, that would be our aim. If he doesn't go there I would imagine he'll be put away for next year and hopefully he can be a Commonwealth Cup horse, as we know he likes Ascot."

Lazy Griff by name but not by nature

Lazy Griff: led in after victory in the Group 3 Prix de Conde

Charlie Johnston and Middleham Park will head to the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud on October 27 with major hopes for Lazy Griff, who showed that indolence was not one of his key traits in making all under Christophe Soumillon to land the Group 3 Prix de Conde. 

"They don’t call him Super Soumi for no reason, do they?" said Middleham's Tim Palin. "He gave him a peach of a ride, carrying out the instructions to perfection.

"He stacked them up around the bend and kicked at the right time. He was probably setting the best fractions throughout and various horses came to lay down their challenge, but he was tough and game throughout."

The last to take the fight to Lazy Griff was Gezora, who failed to reel in the son of the late Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist by a neck, while the previously unbeaten Shandana was four lengths further back.

"He’s got a great stride on him and a great head carriage and, as you would expect from German middle-distance breeding, the further he goes, the better he’ll be," said Palin.

"He was in the Prix de Chenes last week and we thought we’d wait for this over an extra furlong. He’ll now go for the ten-furlong Criterium de Saint-Cloud. 

Palin added: "We were hoping the ground would be a little bit softer today than it turned out, so I’d like to think that with both sides of the pedigree being German, he would relish deeper ground.

"He must have a very good chance of acting on that type of surface, though seeing is believing. Sometimes strong-travelling, front-running horses are the ones to be with when it gets soft."

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