{"id":227507,"date":"2025-06-30T20:40:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227507\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T20:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:40:20","slug":"luca-cumani-ombudsman-and-strong-pool-of-older-horses-present-stiff-challenge-for-classic-generation-in-coral-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227507\/","title":{"rendered":"Luca Cumani: Ombudsman and ‘strong pool’ of older horses present stiff challenge for Classic generation in Coral-Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luca Cumani<\/a> believes Classic winners Camille Pissarro<\/a> and Ruling Court<\/a> need to prove themselves against a “very strong pool” of older horses, headed by hot favourite Ombudsman<\/a>, in Saturday’s \u00a31 million Coral-Eclipse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cumani was on both sides of the generational divide in the Eclipse during his illustrious career, sending out five-year-old Falbrav to best a top-class field in 2003, and seeing four-year-old Starcraft soundly beaten by three-year-olds Oratorio and Motivator two years later.<\/p>\n

He believes Ombudsman and Sosie<\/a> have shown there is a smart crop of older horses over middle distances in Europe this season, while he said he preferred to wait for “facts over opinion” before passing judgement on the Classic crop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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