Karl Burke hopes Royal Champion is ready to launch staunch defence of his Bahrain International Trophy crown this week.
The eight-year-old beat Galen by three-quarters-of-a-length last year and went on to follow up in the Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia.
However after finishing fourth behind Romantic Warrior at Sha Tin in April, was restricted to only one domestic start this summer. That came when he filled the same spot behind Item in July’s Sky Bet York Stakes.
Speaking on Tuesday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast the trainer said: “He looks in good shape. We haven’t had a completely clear run with him through the summer so he comes here a little fresher than he did last year so we’ve done a little bit more with him this morning and we’ll see how he comes out of that and see what we do in the next 48 hours.
“When he came to us a year ago last December, it was straight from Australia where he’d run through their winter down there, and then he came to us and we ran him in England and we won the Winter Derby, raced through the summer and brought him out here. He was on the go for two years and didn’t come back in great shape from his last run in Hong Kong.
“So, it’s been a little bit messy and patchy through the summer, he ran a respectable race York in the race which he’d won the year before but got tired having travelled like the winner to two out. We then made the decision to just look after him for here and then Saudi again hopefully.”
Despite a strong season on several key metrics, Burke admits 2026 hasn’t got exactly as he’d have liked.
“Statistically it’s been one of our best years in terms of number of winners and prize-money won but it doesn’t feel like a good year. Obviously, we had the tragedy of losing Fallen Angel and we’ve had a lo of niggly injuries through the year so I don’t think we’ve really performed as well as we could have if I’m being honest.
"We have a lot of nice three-year-olds that haven’t had hard campaigns and a lot of nice two-year-olds who haven’t even ran who will be nice three-year-olds next year so there’s lots to look forward but it’s been a bit of a frustrating year really," he said.
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