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Form guru Gary Crispe is predicting Mongolian Khan can protect his unbeaten record at 2400m when he contests the $1.5 million The BMW at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
Crispe said Mongolian Khan goes into The BMW with the highest Timeform rating of any starter in the race, returning a 126 figure with his Caulfield Cup win last spring.
"Mongolian Khan has had two runs back from a spell and looks set to peak,'' Crispe said.
"He is unbeaten at the distance winning the Caulfield Cup, NZ Derby and ATC Australian Derby over 2400m, the first horse to win that Derby double since Bonecrusher in 1986.''
Crispe said Mongolian Khan has needed his two runs from a spell but expects the four-year-old to be close to his best on Saturday.
"Mongolian Khan took his place in last Saturday's Ranvet Stakes over 2000m and again after travelling strongly early in the race, tired out of proceedings in the last 200m beaten just over 4 lengths — his rider Opie Bosson was later cautioned by stewards for not riding the stallion out to the line,'' Crispe said.
"But off a seven day back-up, he will strip much fitter for recent racing and at his best he's a very hard opponent to get past in a tight finish.
"If successful he will join Might And Power (1997/98) and Ethereal (2001/02) as the only horses in the past 30 years to win the Caulfield Cup-The BMW double in the same season.''
The Australian Cup has been a reasonable guide to The BMW in recent years and Preferment rates highly for Saturday's race on that basis alone. He is on track to join Octagonal (1997), Makybe Diva (2005) and Manighar (2012) as winners of the Australian Cup-The BMW double.
"Preferment is a classy stayer who demonstrated his versatility last start to win the Australian Cup after being ridden outside his normal running style,'' Crispe said.
"With the farcical early tempo, jockey Hugh Bowman was left with no alternative but to sit second behind the slow pace and although failing to reel in the leader on the line did manage to get the race in the stewards' room.
"Preferment ran to a Timeform rating of 121 in the Australian Cup, a couple of pounds below his 123 master figure and as that was just his second run back from a spell, he should run to at least that level on Saturday — a figure he returned when third-up last preparation.''
Crispe said European import Our Ivanhowe is winless in Australia but has the ability to be in the finish on Saturday.
"He has shown plenty of promise with his highest Timeform rating of 122 coming over this distance when third in the Caulfield Cup behind Mongolian Khan last spring,'' he said.
"On that occasion Our Ivanhowe gave Mongolian Khan a 1kg in weight and finished just under two lengths behind him after staging a battle all the way down the home straight. In The BMW they meet on level weights.
"A dual Group 1 winner in Germany, Our Ivanhowe had a Timeform rating of 123 and is not far off reproducing that figure here under Team Freedman.''
Our Ivanhowe wasn't suited in a slowly run Australian Cup last start and finished an unlucky fifth.
"He was worse than midfield on the home turn but rallied in the straight to pull some ground off the winner Preferment,'' Crispe said.
"That effort earned Our Ivanhowe a Timeform rating of 118 so clearly there is more to come.''
Online article taken from The Mercury.
