Richard Fahey is praying for a trouble-free run for the next month to allow his stable star Wootton Bassett to make it to Newmarket to contest the 2000 Guineas.
The Iffraaj colt enjoyed a brilliant unbeaten juvenile campaign, picking up over STG500,000 ($A780,396) in prizemoney, largely thanks to lucrative sales race victories at York and Doncaster.
He then silenced those who doubted he would be up to competing at the highest level with a pillar-to-post triumph in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day at Longchamp.
His Classic year did not get off to an ideal start, with a January setback meaning the three-year-old is now playing catch up ahead of his first assignment on April 30, but Fahey is cautiously optimistic he will make it to Headquarters.
“We were delighted with how he did during the winter but then he had that bit of a setback that meant we had to stop with him for about three weeks,” Fahey said.
“He’s working well now. Every morning we have a different horse leading him as he just goes a bit quicker than everything else.
“We’re lucky to have a lot of decent sprint handicappers who can lead him, but I’ve never really had the perception of a lead horse until this year.
“You couldn’t canter him in with the rest of them as he’s just too good – he needs to canter fast.
“He’s hacking and they’re cantering – that’s supposedly the difference between a good and a bad horse.”
Fahey admits he would have liked to have given his charge a prep race before the Guineas, but that idea has now been scrapped after his early-year misfortune.
The Musley Bank handler had suggested that his charge may travel to Newmarket for a gallop at the Craven meeting, but he has now cooled on that plan and he may instead have a spin at one of the quieter northern tracks.
“I’d liked to have got a prep run into him but it’s not going to happen,” Fahey said.
“Hopefully a few racecourses will let him have a spin as he’s a very relaxed horse at the moment and he needs to get away somewhere.
“I’m not sure about Newmarket. It was on the agenda but I’m undecided. I just don’t know if I want him to be in the public eye at the minute.
“I’ll watch him do a bit more work and make a decision on that nearer the time. I’m being selfish I’m afraid, but I want to be comfortable before I do it.
“It might suit to go to Doncaster, Ripon or Pontefract, somewhere like that.
“The theory for going to Newmarket was to get him used to going down the hill, but he wouldn’t be going the speed he’d be racing at anyway, so I don’t think that’s much of a benefit.
“It’s all up in the air at the moment.”
PA mfl/gm
