Sir Mark Prescott remains unconvinced about Hooray’s chances in the 1000 Guineas as he revealed a cluster of concerns.
After the filly won a succession of top races last season, culminating in a 4-1/2-length victory in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes, the experienced trainer dropped heavy hints she would be unlikely to have the scope to make a serious three-year-old.
He intends to get her to the Classic at Newmarket on May 1, but his words were not exactly encouraging to her supporters.
“It’s an interesting equation really,” Prescott said.
“She was the best filly seen all year and on ratings was 2lb (1kg) above the rest.
“The drawback is she just hasn’t grown – she’s the same size. Her family very often don’t train on, and I’ve had quite a few of them. And she hasn’t particularly thrived as I have started to work her now.
“The main thing for all trainers this time of year, with trying to get them ready, is whether they eat and she is not eating as well as I’d like at the moment.
“So whether she gets there or not, I don’t know. But we’d like to try and whether she stays, I don’t know. Either she will or she won’t. It wouldn’t indicate that she probably would.
“So we’ve got the best animal, but you’ve got all these little bits and pieces.
“I’ve got to hope, rather as John Gosden once said, that the Guineas is the last two-year-old race of the year and I was the best two-year-old, so that’s the hope.”
Written by Tom Peacock