ANDREW BALDING is eyeing compensation at Haydock Park a week on Saturday for the luckless Hatton Flight.
The five-year-old unseated William Buick almost straight after leaving the stalls in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot on Saturday.
Now Balding is looking to the Old Newton Cup on July 4 in a bid to make up for the mishap.
Balding said: “If all is well, and we should know in a week, he could possibly go for the Old Newton Cup at Haydock.
“I’ve always fancied he could be an Ebor horse and that would be high on the list too.”
One horse who excelled at the Royal meeting, record-breaking four-time Ascot Gold Cup hero Yeats, could end the season with an audacious bid for glory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Aidan O’Brien’s history-making stayer will be entered in the end-of-season middle distance championship at Longchamp, although a bid at a third Goodwood Cup next month could be on the agenda.
Coolmore supremo John Magnier said: “Aidan has said the horse is back, cantering away, and fine in himself, and his future will revolve around Goodwood, The Curragh, and the Arc weekend in Paris. It will be a mixture of these options.
“He’ll be entered for the Arc, but there’s no guarantee he’ll run.
“But history tells us that really good stayers have run well in the Arc, horses such as Levmoss and Ardross.
“Listen, if you had said before he ran that you were planning to win the races Yeats has won, you would have been certified.”
More stayers will again be to the fore in this weekend’s John Smith’s Northumberland Plate at Newcastle with Godolphin duo Friston Forest and Age Of Reason heading the weights.
The extended two-mile contest had 48 entries declared at yesterday’s five-day stage and last year’s winner Arc Bleu is expected to line up to bid for a second successive win in the ‘Pitmen’s Derby’.
Tony Martin’s eight-year-old just got into the race as a reserve last season and under Adrian Nicholls just pipped the Richard Fahey-trained Halla San.
Jamie Spencer will ride this time and Martin is hopeful of a big run despite his charge having 10lbs more to carry this time.
The Irish trainer said: “All is going well with him and, as he’s 10lb higher this year, we’ll have no problems about getting in the race. The intention is to send him over and let him take his chance.
“Jamie Spencer will ride him, he’s ridden him before and knows him. It’s fair to say he’s better on the Flat than he is over hurdles now – you get horses like that.
“Look at (recent Royal Ascot winner) Caracciola, they might be bred for jumping, but they are better on the Flat.
“He ran a massive race in the Cesarewitch but he faced a pretty stiff task when you see what Caracciola has done since.
“Hopefully he’ll put up a good show, it doesn’t matter what the ground is like for him really.
Judgethemoment, who won the Ascot Stakes last week, also looks he will line up at Gosforth Park.
He is a 10-1 chance with William Hill, Victor Chandler, Paddy Power and Skybet behind 9-1 favourite Ajaan, who was second in the Chester Cup.
Trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam is hopeful her four-year-old can defy a 5lb penalty – which guaranteed his place in Saturday’s maximum field of 20 – picked up for his Royal Ascot success.
The Newmarket trainer said: “He’s fantastic and I’m very pleased with him. He’ll definitely run as long as he doesn’t pick up an injury or anything.
“It’s just as well he won at Ascot to get the penalty otherwise he wouldn’t get in.
“He’s won three on the bounce and he’ll be in the shake-up because he’s in really good order.
“I’ve just got to check Richard Hughes is available to ride him again as there’s a lot of good racing on Saturday.
“I have no-one else in mind at present and I see Jamie Spencer has gone to Arc Bleu.
“People were having doubts about him getting the two and a half miles at Ascot, but we didn’t have any doubts about it. Now he’s gone back to what everybody said was his right trip. You just need a bit of luck with the draw.”
TODAY’S NAP: Unbelievable Jeff (5.45pm Beverley).
