Sandown Thursday preview: What the trainers say including Brigadier Gerard Stakes

Expectations high as Desert Crown hits comeback trail

Desert Crown is all set for his highly-anticipated comeback in the Racehorse Lotto Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown on Thursday evening.

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Derby hero has been seen just three times in his career, but has made a huge impression regardless.

He won a maiden on debut and then took last year’s Dante at York en route to a memorable victory in the premier Classic itself.

Injury curtailed his season after his two-and-a-half-length victory in the blue riband, however, and Sandown’s Group Three event is his first run since that memorable day last June.

Despite an absence of 355 days, Bruce Raymond, racing manager to owner Saeed Suhail, is expecting the Nathaniel colt’s unbeaten status to be maintained.

He said: “I’m more than hopeful. It would be a huge upset were he to be beaten. Of course, they can all be beaten, but I don’t expect him to be.

“Michael is definitely 100 per cent happy with him, he’s fine, he’s working good and while there’s enough improvement to come, he’s fit enough to do himself justice. He was so impressive in the Derby. The race was over two out.”

Stoute, too, expressed his satisfaction at how his star has done in the build-up to his return.

He said: “Desert Crown has progressed well over the last few weeks, and it will be good to get him back to work.”

The same owner and trainer will also be represented by Solid Stone, a Group winner in his own right who will set the pace for his stablemate.

“We’ve got a pacemaker in Solid Stone to make sure it’s not a crawl,” said Raymond.

“He leads him in all his work and he didn’t run at Chester recently just so he could run in this.”

Also on the comeback trail is Owen Burrows’ Hukum, an impressive winner of the Coronation Cup at Epsom last season before injury struck.

His career looked to be in jeopardy but he has been rehabilitated and returned to training, with the Sandown contest coming nearly a year since his last run.

But Burrows is mindful of the conditions in Esher and if the ground is too quick, Hukum will not be risked ahead of his Royal Ascot target, the Hardwicke Stakes.

“We’ve been really pleased with him, obviously it’s a very tough race!” said Burrows.

“Timing-wise it really works out, it slots in well with the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot as a prep run. Fingers crossed he can show his old enthusiasm, run a nice race and get his season on track.

“Myself and Richard Hills (of owners Shadwell) are going to walk the track beforehand, I’ve been liaising with Andrew Cooper, the clerk, and he normally does a great job.

“I just don’t want to run him for the first time in the year on fast ground and it’s an evening meeting, so there’s plenty of time throughout the day for it to dry out.

“We’ll just be taking a look to make sure we’re happy.”

Adding further spice is David Simcock’s Cash, who was just a short head behind Westover in the Classic Trial over course and distance last year, while Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Claymore is a Royal Ascot winner and Keith Dalgleish’s Chichester was last seen finishing second at the All-Weather Championships at Newcastle on Good Friday.

Blue Storm rolls in for National Stakes assignment

All eyes will be on Blue Storm as James Tate’s two-year-old takes his chance in the Racehorse Lotto National Stakes.

It looks a red-hot renewal of the Listed five-furlong sprint, but Blue Storm is just one of an array of precocious youngsters to emerge from the first crop of former sprint king Blue Point.

The form of the colt’s Newmarket debut has been franked at all angles in the subsequent weeks, with the second, third, fourth and fifth all winning in style on their next starts.

And although buoyed by those results and excited to see his charge line up at the Esher track, Tate is refusing to get too carried away having seen the National Stakes scupper dreams in the past.

He said: “We were very impressed with him first time and the form couldn’t have worked out any better. He’s been impressing at home and it’s all positives really.

“Having said that I’ve ran horses in the National Stakes a few times and on paper it looks a strong renewal, so it’s a good job we’re bringing what we think is a good horse in to it.

“We’re happy with our horse and looking forward to Thursday night.”

Hugo Palmer won this two years ago and this time saddles Hackman, who was third behind Blue Storm at Newmarket but now reopposes having advertised his speed to win impressively at Chester, while Charlie Appleby’s On Point is another of Blue Point’s progeny arriving at Sandown having won on the Rowley Mile first time out.

Richard Hannon may be a fair way off matching his father’s impressive haul in this race, but landed the spoils in both 2014 and 2015 and has two worthy contenders once again in Dapper Valley and Love Billy Boy.

The form of Dapper Valley’s soft-ground Newbury win has a solid look to it, while the latter ran on strongly to land the spoils at Musselburgh on debut.

“Obviously we have two very nice horses who both won on their debuts and naturally they will come on a lot for their first runs,” said Hannon.

“I think fast ground will be more to Dapper Valley’s liking.

“Love Billy Boy has a lot of speed and won over a sharp five up north. It’s a very lucky race for David Sullivan (part owner), who has won it a couple of times, and they are keen to take their chance.

“It’s an extremely hot renewal and whatever wins it will be probably amongst the favourites for Royal Ascot if they go."

Ralph Beckett’s Matters Most finished third to Dapper Valley at Newbury, but the son of Advertise – who cost 500,000 as a yearling – built on that racecourse bow to get off the mark at Salisbury last time and could have plenty more to offer.

“He’s in good shape, we’re looking forward to it and we’ll find out how good he is on Thursday night,” said Beckett.

Irish interest is provided by Tipperary scorer Son Of Corballis, with handler Kieran Cotter keen to get extra experience into the Raven’s Pass colt before a potential Royal Ascot tilt.

“There are limited opportunities for him here in Ireland over five furlongs and we just thought to give him this prep run before Royal Ascot,” said Cotter.

“The plan is to go for the Norfolk with him and we like him a lot, but we just need to get more of a line on him really and I suppose we’ll know more after Thursday.

“We think he’s smart and we’re confident enough to bring him over. He has a good temperament and is a smart sort, but we haven’t had that proper line on him just yet.”

Karl Burke is another handler saddling two runners and both Doncaster scorer Elite Status and Pontefract winner World Of Darcy created taking impressions, while Alice Haynes’ Shayekh completes a strong field of 10 going to post.

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