Arrest makes all in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes

Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud runner-up Arrest (Frankel) regained the winning thread and punched his ticket to the St Leger with a pillar-to-post victory in Saturday's Gr.3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 22th August 2023, by Sean Cronin:

Remaining out wide lobbing along on the lead before taking the shortest route around the sweeping home turn, the 5-6 favourite was shaken up in the centre of the track with three furlongs remaining and maintained a high tempo inside the final quarter-mile to easily withstand the late threat of Ching Shih by a geared-down one and a half lengths. Roger Varian trainee Shandoz fared best of the remainder and finished six lengths adrift in third.

"Everyone expected the ground to be a bog, but it's good-to-soft, and he was the Derby favourite so he had to do that," said Dettori. "He's one card for the St Leger, but let's see how Gregory gets on next Wednesday [in the Gr.2 Great Voltigeur]. Soft ground is not an issue with him and if it's soft at Doncaster it would be fine."