An impressive nine-length winner over the track and trip on debut in December, Karl Burke’s colt was sent off the 1/4 favourite for his second start, with connections eyeing a shot at the Qipco 2000 Guineas.
Sent immediately to the front by Daniel Tudhope, he had most of the seven-strong field covered rounding the turn for home and once shaken up with two furlongs to go scorched to a most impressive success, with Charlie Hills’ 93-rated Cogitate five-lengths adrift in second.
With 2000 Guineas odds ranging between 20/1 and 33s prior to his run in the Boost Your Acca At BetMGM Novice Stakes, the son of Dark Angel was trimmed into 14/1 by Paddy Power and Coral post-race, with Sky Bet even shorter at 10/1. The Aidan O’Brien-trained City Of Troy is the red-hot favourite.
Night Raider will now have one final tune-up for his Newmarket objective on May 4, with the Spigot Lodge handler nominating a trip to the Rowley Mile next month for either a conditions event or a racecourse gallop to bank some further experience.
“He’s a horse of huge potential, we know that and he’s not fully wound up by any stretch of the imagination,” Burke told Sky Sports Racing.
“His weight was identical to first time out and all of ours improve for their first time out. Nadir who leads him up said he has taken more of a blow tonight than he did the first time. He was a second and a half faster this time and I don’t know if that is down to ability or the track riding faster.
“I don’t think I would take 8/1 (about the Guineas), but the 40/1 I had a couple of months ago is a bit better! Let's hope he is an 8/1 shot and he’s obviously a very good horse and his future is in front of him. The Guineas isn’t the be all and end all for him and he’s a horse with a big future.”
On a further outing before the Guineas, he added: “He may have been on grass at the beginning of his two-year-old career, but he certainly wouldn’t have been on grass in the last 10 months or so.
“The idea was to go to the Guineas with a racecourse gallop at the Craven meeting – I don’t want to go a mile or go for the Craven itself and if we went for the seven-furlong race at Newbury (Greenham), that only gives us two weeks before the Guineas – or there is a seven-furlong conditions race for horses that haven’t run more than twice, and I have to speak to connections, but if we do go anywhere, I would be pointing that way.
“Danny just said there he could do with another run. He’s still green in front and was lugging away up the straight. Another run is probably the right way to go.
“Laurens was pretty good in her first two runs, but he’s a lovely horse with a great temperament and there’s a lot of scope there, so we’ve just got to look after him, do the right thing by him and hopefully he reaches his full potential.”
Burke also provided an update on fellow Clipper Logistics-owned three-year-old Fallen Angel, with the daughter of Too Darn Hot disputing favouritism in places for the Qipco 1000 Guineas.
Off the track since landing the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh, she is poised for a racecourse gallop before the opening fillies Classic of the campaign.
“There’s another six weeks to get a horse there and that is a long time in a racehorse’s life,” added Burke.
“She’s in great heart at the moment and great form and we’re probably ahead of schedule of where we need to be. The plan is probably to go to the Craven meeting for a racecourse gallop and that will hopefully tee her up for the Guineas.
“I was quite keen to go for the Fillies’ Mile, Steve Parkin her owner was the opposite and put her away, and as it turned out the very heavy ground the Fillies’ Mile was run in would not have been ideal so it was the right decision to put her away.
“She had a good rest, went back to Brampton Court and come back looking fantastic. She’s filled her frame, she was always a big filly, but she has filmed her frame nicely. She’s very strong and she’s in great shape.”
Burke also said he was feeling “fit and well” after completing a course of chemotherapy.
He explained: “Chemo finished on December 16 and that wasn’t much fun, as anyone who has been through it knows. Since then every week has felt better. We had a good holiday, went away and I’m feeling fit and well, all good.”
