Mick Appleby’s star juvenile Big Evs will put Nunthorpe disappointment behind him and press on with his sprint campaign.
The Blue Point colt scored at two of the biggest summer meetings when landing the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot and then the Molecomb at Goodwood.
Both contests are restricted to two-year-olds, but his success inspired connections to step markedly up in grade and take on older horses in the Group One Nunthorpe at York’s Ebor meeting.
The bay was a 5-1 chance under Andrea Atzeni when banking a weight allowance for his age, but the race never looked his for the taking as he faded to finish 14th of 16 runners.
Big Evs trotted up sound after the run and was found to be bearing no ill effects, leaving Appleby to conclude that he had simply had a harder race than first thought at Goodwood.
With the horse in good health, there are no plans to cut his season short and he could head next for the Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster before an American foray is planned to take aim at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
“He’s absolutely fine, he came back fine and we had bloods taken and couldn’t find anything amiss,” Appleby said.
“He trotted up sound, I think it’s just that he had a lot harder race at Goodwood than we thought.
“It was a big ask for a two-year-old against older horses at this time of year, but I think it was more that – he’d just had a hard enough race at Goodwood and it came a couple of weeks too soon for him.
“He’s come out of it well, anyway, so we’ll just dust ourselves down and go again.
“He’ll possibly go to the Flying Childers and then the main aim is the Breeders’ Cup.
“It’s an easy five furlongs, it’s on the turf at Santa Anita and that should suit him so provided it doesn’t hammer down with rain, we’ll head there.”
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org
