Luke Morris rider of Al Nayyir© Photo Healy Racing
Al Nayyir laid down a marker to his potential Champions Day rivals after coasting to victory in the Jockey Club Rose Bowl Stakes.
The six-year-old was a short-head second in the Group Two Lonsdale Cup at York on his debut for Tom Clover last month, but he justified his tag as 11-8 favourite in the Listed contest at Newmarket with the comfortable triumph.
Aidan O’Brien’s Fighter was bidding to complete a hat-trick in the two-mile race and occupied the pace-setting role.
However, jockey Luke Morris cruised through a gap with ease before stretching Al Nayyir’s advantage with every stride. Harbour Wind representing Dermot Weld, made his initial move alongside the eventual winner but finished eight lengths behind in the runner-up spot.
Al Nayyir is now 7-1 from 16s with Paddy Power for the British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot next month.
“He did it really nicely and he is a very exciting stayer and I couldn’t be more thrilled by the way he won there, he did it hard held didn’t he,” said Clover.
“We’ve got him in on Champions Day and I imagine that will be the logical step, but I would just love to avoid Kyprios if we could, that would be nice.
“It’s impossible to know if he could put it up to Kyprios, but he does look very classy and the way he ran at York, he came from a long way back and hit the line strongly. You would love to see them have a match at some point. We’re all sports fans and it would be great to see.”
He went on: “He is a very exciting horse for us and I’m just pleased for the owner and very grateful for their support. He’s one of our highest-rated horses and we love having these stakes horses.
“He ran a huge race at York and just seems to be improving. He didn’t get a smack and to win any stakes race by that distance is exciting. He’s a lovely horse and by Dubawi, they tend to improve with time and age and hopefully he will keep progressing.
“The form at York with Vauban looks strong and he has placed at Group One level previously and probably deserves to win one at some stage.”
While Ascot is an immediate consideration, Al Nayyir could head to Dubai again over the winter months.
Clover added: “The plan is to go to Dubai and the owner is very keen to go, and I would love to go as well. Fingers crossed we can get him out there and we would love to go there this winter.
“There’s some great prize money in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. I’m just thrilled the horse has got his head in front today, he deserved to win a race and he’s gone and done it in the style we hoped and hopefully now we can roll on to our next race in a few weeks’ time.
“He hasn’t had much of a race there today, so hopefully he comes out of it fine and we can go there with plenty to look forward to.”
Weld, who made the trip across the Irish Sea to Suffolk, was delighted with Harbour Wind’s performance and is also eyeing Ascot.
“He’s run his usual excellent race and he’s never finished outside of the first two in his life,” he said.
“Fair play to the winner, he looks a high-class stayer. He came into the race rated 114 and he has probably run way above 114 in my opinion.
“I would say we would head to Champions Day. We will review it with the owner and discuss his plan and I would say the ground was a bit too deep for him there today.”
