Alan King claims Northumberland Plate was the target for Ardlui – Horseracing news
Trainer Alan King has revealed that he missed the Royal Ascot in order to prepare Ardlui for the John Smith's Northumberland Plate at Newcastle in England.
Te five-year-old gelding was last seen in action in April and he has been training hard since then. He could have raced in a few competitions and possibly would have won them too, but his camp decided against that.
According to King, “He has enjoyed a nice break since he won so well at Ripon, and this race looked better for him than the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot last week.”
The start to the 2013 season was not a good one for Ardlui, as he looked completely out of sorts back then. Despite being given a pretty decent starting price of 5 to 1, he failed to make an impression and ended up way down in
ninth place. The going did not suit him at all in the event, but he was right on top of his game next time around.
The Irish challenger was priced 9 to 2 for his second race of the season and the ground was good. He saw an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands, winning by a neck distance. This gave immense confidence to his team, thus
they decided to prepare him for selective competitions.
However, Ardlui’s previous victory came under jockey Neil Callan, who was partnering him for the first time. He will not be there at Newcastle, which might be a bit of a setback for the young challenger.
This does not bother King though, as he has full faith in his current line up, which has given him success in the past. He said, “Fergus [Sweeney - jockey] does so well on our Flat horses so hopefully he will again be lucky for
us.”
The seasoned rider has accompanied Ardlui in numerous races and the pair has enjoyed a very good time together, winning a couple of events. King will be hoping for a similar result in John Smith's Northumberland Plate too, but
things will not be easy at all, as there are some other decent stallions lined up for action in the class-2 encounter.
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