Doncaster winner can put good Complexion on Sir Michael Stoute’s day
The bus pass may already be in the post but the retirement date is still some way over the horizon.
Sir Michael Stoute has reached a landmark with his 65th birthday but the only one that he will be interested in will be his next winner. Richard Hannon may be out of his reach in their battle to win the trainers’ championship but Stoute’s competitive instincts means that he will not have given up just yet.
The HRH Princess Royal EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Doncaster only carries £4,047 in prize money but every penny counts and Complexion looks a good bet. A half-sister to Celebration Mile winner Zacinto, Complexion found herself on something of a steep learning curve on her debut run at Kempton last month.
She was slowly away but was making up ground well in the final furlong to finish second to Submission and, as a daughter of Hurricane Run, the step up from seven furlongs to a mile should help.
The main danger is likely to be Devastation, who is bred along similar lines by Montjeu out of an Efisio mare. She lost out to a more experienced rival at Nottingham but the time was slow and the form may not be quite as good as it looks.
The form of King’s Realm did not look that promising last season, with three wide-margin defeats over a mile, but Sir Mark Prescott’s horse has improved for the step up to two miles over which he won a handicap at Lingfield nine days ago.
After a bountiful run for the stable in September, which produced a 35% strike-rate, that was only Prescott’s second winner this month but two more from the trainer’s next nine runners suggests that normal service is close to being resumed.
King’s Realm gets a 6lb penalty for the Great Offers At wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk Handicap and can add to the yard’s 29% strike-rate in handicaps this year.
Fakenham is not a course that suits every horse but the one that Nicky Henderson sends there seem to handle it better than most. The trainer has a 56% strike-rate, and that rises to 71% with his bumper runners, so it is hard to oppose Ceilidh Royal in the Fakenham Intermediate Open National Hunt Flat Race.
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