Can Cape Blanco Stop Gio Ponti in Man O'War?

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July 05, 2011 8:29 AM

Jamie Spencer is looking forward to travelling across the Atlantic at the weekend to take the ride on Cape Blanco, who will be trying to stop Gio Ponti winning the Grade 1 Man O'War Stakes for a third time.

The Aidan O'Brien-trained four-year-old, last seen finishing sixth of seven in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, has not won since last year's Irish Champion Stakes and Spencer is hoping he will be able to repeat the form that saw him finish one place in front of Gio Ponti when fourth in the Dubai World Cup last March.
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Can Cape Blanco Stop Gio...

A horse that's beaten Workforce in the Dante Stakes, Midas Touch and Jan Vermeer in the Irish Derby, Rip Van Winkle and Twice Over in the Irish Champion Stakes, and that's ran 2nd to Harbinger in arguably the most impressive King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes win ever is absolutely capable of beating Gio Ponti if he bring's that legitimate G1 form that he possesses to Belmont with him? But Cape Blanco will have to be at his best, because Gio Ponti has always proven to be tough to beat at Belmont. At their best, I really don't think there's a great deal between these 2 on official ratings? Gio Ponti's also been very good throughout his career over synthetic surfaces, too. He's raced 5 times on synthetics, never finishing worse than 5th. Which was in the the 2008 Strub Stakes and the 2011 Dubai World Cup. But bear in mind, Cape Blanco, in his first and only career start on a synthetic surface finished 4th in the same Dubai World Cup that Gio Ponti finished 5th in. That's the only race between the two, head to head, to measure them by.

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Can Cape Blanco Stop Gio...

It totally depends on Cape Blanco, IMO?? The Cape Blanco that galloped Rip Van Winkle and Twice Over completely off of their feet at Leopardstown back in September, when he won the G1 Irish Champion Stakes by 5+ length's is more than capable of beating Gio Ponti. But not the Cape Blanco that we've seen so far during the 2011 season. That finished 4th on his seasonal debut in the G1 Prix Ganay, and finished a well beaten 6th behind Canford Cliffs and Goldikova in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes. Jamie Spencer has to take into account that Gio Ponti has won the last 2 running's of the Man O' War Stakes, and he really loves the track surface at Belmont Park. When Cape Blanco won the Irish Champion Stakes, he went to straight to lead, and galloped out those 10f as strongly as I've seen any horse run 10f on turf from the front end in a long time. My guess is that Spencer will try to do much the same with Cape Blanco in the Man O' War, and put the pressure on Gio Ponti to try and come catch him. The same way he pressured Rip Van Winkle and Twice Over to try and catch him at Leopardstown. But having seen both of Cape Blanco's run's in 2011, I give the edge in this race to Gio Ponti. TJMO.