pass has gosden california dreaming

John Gosden believes a long hard summer in Europe for Raven's Pass will help not hinder his Breeders' Cup Classic hopes in California on Saturday.

When Raven's Pass finally got the better of Aidan O'Brien's Henrythenavigator at the fourth time of asking in last month's Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot it was the three-year-old's seventh race of the season.

Yet as Princess Haya of Jordan's colt prepares to face defending champion and hot favourite Curlin on Saturday night, Gosden pronounced himself delighted with his progress.

"He's a very good horse, he's raced hard all year and improved through the year. He's bigger and stronger now," Gosden said after Raven's Pass got his first look at Santa Anita's Pro-Ride synthetic surface.

"He was a bit unlucky in the Sussex. I'd played with him between then and the Celebration Mile which he won at a canter and then I didn't over-train him through to the QEII.

"I went out on the pony with him this morning and he was full of himself and I was just leading him around the barn and actually he was leading me. So he's pretty full of himself.

"He's had a hard preparation in the spring, a hard summer of racing, but I tell you what - he's come here a better horse at the end of it, which is a great test of constitution."

Gosden admitted the mile and a quarter trip for the son of Elusive Quality was unknown territory with Raven's Pass having not raced further than a mile.

"He wasn't stopping at Ascot (in the QEII) and they come up the hill there but whether he'd get the extra is in the lap of the gods. Unless you go you can't tell but there's a lot of stout breeding in his pedigree."

Gosden said the artificial surface at Santa Anita should pose no problems for Raven's Pass as he trained on it in England.

"It's a level playing field for all of them," he said. "I wouldn't have run him if the Classic had been on the dirt because of the kick-back, which is something he's entirely unused to, but he's exercised daily on this at Newmarket and it's the perfect surface really.

"It's not influenced by the weather unduly and it's consistent."

Whether that level playing field would be enough to overhaul the great Curlin, however, was another matter, but Gosden said he was relishing the prospect of taking on the 2007 Horse of the Year and 2008 Dubai World Cup winner.

He said: "He's a superb horse. I love the way he travels in a race, I love the way he won his trial and the Dubai World Cup. He sets the benchmark and he would hold his own in most generations.

"He's a fabulous horse and it's so exciting. Someone's got to come and take him on. We can't all be wimps and go and hide on the turf.

"I think it's great and he's going into a little unknown territory. They say he breezed brilliantly around here the other day and he's a machine, he'd probably go on anything."