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Trainer Hugo Palmer is hoping that Escobar can extend the unbeaten start to his career to three races when he faces seven rivals in an intriguing renewal of the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes as the three-day Cambridgeshire meeting gets under way at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse on Thursday (22nd September).
The field for this £50,000 seven furlong contest for two-year-old colts and geldings, which is registered as the Somerville Stakes, includes a number of possible stars of the future.
Top of that list would be Escobar, a son of Famous Name who hasn’t put a foot wrong during two outings over this trip at Newbury, when beating a big field of maidens and then when landing the Listed Washington Singer Stakes by a length and a quarter.
Larchmont Lad is the only other member of the party with stakes race form having lost out in a three-way photo finish when third to Rodaini in the Listed Flying Scotsman Stakes at Doncaster a fortnight ago.
But the line-up is littered with promising types, such as the dual Kempton scorer, Sir Dancealot; Law And Order, comfortable winner of a strong-looking maiden at Newmarket’s Adnams July Course last month; and Ultimate Avenue, whose Newbury maiden victory has worked out well.
And the race is given an international flavour by the presence of the Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish challenger, Whitecliffsofdover. A US$1.15 million yearling purchase, he got off the mark with an easy victory at Naas on 1st August and will be ridden by Ryan Moore.
Hugo Palmer, trainer of Escobar, said:
“I think and hope that Escobar is improving all the time. We have been very pleased with his work and what he shows us at home makes me hopeful of a very big run in the Tattersalls Stakes.”
“He is very much a horse for next year and has lots of speed, like most good horses do. The dream is that he will make up into a Guineas horse for next season and he is entered in the Derby too – I would love to find ourselves in the position at some point in the future where we need to find out if he stays a mile and a half.”
“He is a decent ground horse and I would hate to see it get soft before Thursday the ground at Newmarket is currently ‘good’ with only light rain forecast in the next 48 hours.”