Richard Pankhurst returns to the racecourse on Thursday 14 months after he was an exciting, impressive winner at Royal Ascot, with his trainer, John Gosden, hoping to make hay in what remains of the year.
The colt was as short as 9-1 for the 2,000 Guineas when suffering a setback in April and now resumes his career in a low-profile contest at Haydock worth £11,000 to the winner.
“He was due to run in the Craven Stakes but then he was lame after work on the Saturday beforehand and that was that,” Gosden said on Wednesday. “He’s ready to run. They’ve had rain again there today and he’s a top-of-the-ground horse but I think we’d better get on and run him, even if it is on the easy side.”
Having won the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot by three and three-quarter lengths with a subsequent Group One winner in third, Richard Pankhurst has strong form claims in Thursday’s race but Gosden warned punters that success is not to be taken for granted. “He’ll be pretty ring-rusty, frankly, and he’s quite full of himself, so he’ll run like that.”
Beyond today the horse has various entries in Group Two races and his trainer will try to find a sound surface for him. “I’m jammed up against the autumn,” Gosden said. “If it is soft ground here, I may have to look further afield.”
Gosden, who still holds a £1m advantage in the trainers’ table for this year, hopes to have a big Saturday, with important runners at Haydock, where he has the 16-1 shot Waady in the Sprint Cup, and Kempton.
Jack Hobbs goes to the latter venue for his first run since landing the Irish Derby in late June, his trainer having decided that Kempton would be preferable to a falsely run trial race at Longchamp the following weekend.
“He’s been deliberately freshened up and he’s in good order. I was not particularly keen to take part in a bicycle velodrome race in the Prix Niel. I’ve been there before and the tempo is steady, steady, steady, dash. As Olivier Peslier said to me once, they should just put the stalls at the top of the straight and run the trials from there.
“So I think we’ll stay here and run. He’s taking on older horses with a penalty, which he wouldn’t have to do in the Niel, but he’s got a big stride on him and he doesn’t want to be fiddling around. We’ll run him and then we’ll see if it’s the Arc or the Champion Stakes [at Ascot] for him next.”
Looking ahead to the following Saturday, Gosden confirmed that Golden Hornwas still on course for the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and a possible meeting with Gleneagles. “He worked this morning under Frankie Dettori and he’ll do another bit at the weekend,” the trainer reported.
“We’ll run on anything from good to soft to good to firm but if there’s buckets of rain, we won’t be turning up.” The forecast for the area is for very little rain until at least the middle of next week.
Golden Horn narrowly lost his unbeaten record to Arabian Queen at York last time, a defeat that had as much to do with tactics as with the rain-softened racing surface, in Gosden’s view.
“If we were allowed to run that race again, we’d ride him somewhat differently. They lay too far off the pacemaker and did not give enough respect to the filly.”
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