Charlie Johnston fears quick ground could scupper his plans to return last year’s Betfred Derby runner-up Lazy Griff in the Star Sports Henry II Stakes at Sandown Park on Thursday.
The Middleham handler is keen to run the son of Protectionist in the two mile Group Three test to discover whether he can develop into a contender for next month’s Ascot Gold Cup.
However, with the forecast set to remain dry, Johnston admits he might have to wait a bit longer with the Middleham Park-owned colt, who has not been sighted since finishing third in last year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh.
Johnston said: “He worked on Thursday and he has been in good order. This has been the revised target for a couple of weeks, and we would love to run him.
“The forecast suggests that the ground could end up pretty fast. We would then have to make a decision as to whether we would run him or not.
“If it was very quick ground we would maybe have to re-think. We want to run though as the Henry II is the perfect stepping stone to a possible tilt at the Ascot Gold Cup.”
Although Johnston admits sending Lazy Griff straight to the Ascot Gold Cup is not ideal he insists it is not out of the question.
He added: “We would be happy to go into a big one, if our hand was forced. It would be a big ask to run in an Ascot Gold Cup first time out, but it wouldn’t be beyond us.
“At the moment we are aiming to run on Thursday until we know we can't and then we will re-evaluate and make a plan from there.”
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