Saturday, 5 May 2012: The connections of Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden are not worried by track conditions at Newmarket ahead of his reappearance in the Jockey Club Stakes on Saturday.
 | Dunaden wins the Melbourne Cup
Photo by Racing and Sports | |
|
The six-year-old will be having his first start in Britain after his exploits around the world in 2011 that saw him win the Melbourne Cup at Flemington and the Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin to be arguably rated the best stayer of the year.
His trainer Mikel Delzangles is no stranger to Britain, having won the 2000 Guineas with Makfi two years ago.
With Australian jockey Craig Williams competing in Japan this weekend, Johnny Murtagh has been summoned by Delzangles to take the ride on
Dunaden.
David Redvers, racing manager for
Dunaden's owners Pearl Bloodstock, is interested to see how he performs at his first start since December.
Redvers said: "He looks great and he's in great fettle, so we're looking forward to running him and seeing how he gets on.
"It's his first run of the year and he may need the run a little, but we're still hopeful he'll run a good race.
"I know he won a Melbourne Cup and a Hong Kong Vase on fast ground, but I don't think he needs it that way.
"He's also won on bottomless ground in France, so I don't expect the ground at Newmarket to be any issue for him.
"It is a bit of a fact-finding mission and it's going to be a fascinating race."
Last year's St Leger winner Masked Marvel has been declared by John Gosden, but his participation is still up in the air.
"He's been declared, but he's not a definite runner as yet," Gosden said.
"For horses like him there are very few options, but I'd rather I didn't run him on soft ground.
"I'll walk the course on the morning of the race and if I'm happy he'll run."
Roger Charlton's consistent Al Kazeem was due to run at Sandown two weeks ago, but was taken out on account of the very soft ground. He is another good ride in what could be a special 24 hours for jockey
James Doyle, who rides Top Offer in the Guineas and then flies to Hong Kong for the Champions Mile ride on Cityscape.
Doyle said: "It looks a very competitive race with the Melbourne Cup winner and a St Leger winner and a few other nice horses in there. It looks a hot race."
The field also includes Quest For Peace, owned by the Melbourne-based OTI Racing and trained by regular spring carnival visitor Luca Cumani.
