© Photo Healy Racing
The Strikin Viking bids to get back on track down in trip for the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project Cornwallis Stakes on Friday.
The colt started out in the care of Kevin Ryan and caught the eye of Wathnan Racing when finishing a close second to Henri Matisse in the Railway Stakes, after which he was switched to the yard of Hamad Al Jehani.
He made his first start for his new connections in the Richmond Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he was beaten half a length by Michael O’Callaghan’s Black Forza as the 11-10 favourite.
His next outing was in the Gimcrack at York, where he beat only one horse to come home ninth in a field of 10 having taken a keen hold before weakening late on.
James Doyle has been in the saddle the last twice and hopes the drop to five furlongs and a more settled approach to his racing will help the horse put the disappointment of his last run behind him.
“I kind of got things wrong on him at Goodwood in the Richmond and I was kicking myself as I didn’t have enough respect for the early fractions they went – I was quite hard on him and he tired late on,” he said.
“When we went to York he kind of did things upside down, he hit the gates and just did everything on one breath. We’re thinking he is very fast. We just want him to hit the line, do things right and relax and finish off his race.
“His racing manners will definitely be key and as long as he relaxes early and finishes right, even if we don’t win we will be happy with that. We’re more dropping back in trip so he can go a good gallop and settle in, so it will be interesting.”
A key rival will be Saeed bin Suroor’s Midnight Thunder, another horse who drops down to the minimum distance.
The winner of his past two starts and placed second on debut, the son of Kodiac will be ridden by Oisin Murphy and is expected to appreciate any further softening of the ground.
“Midnight Thunder came out of his win at Yarmouth in good form and has been working well,” said Bin Suroor said via the Godolphin website.
“He is a horse who prefers softer conditions, so we are hoping there is some rain for him to be able to take his chance. Dropping down to five will be fine on a softer surface, but the ground is important to him.”
Also near the head of the market is Fozzy Stack’s Grande Marques, a Starspangledbanner filly who was the convincing winner of a Navan maiden in early September and then a close third in the Firth of Clyde at Ayr when beaten only half a length.
“She’s in good order, I hope they don’t get too much rain as she’d be better on nicer ground,” said Stack.
“She seems well and hopefully she’ll run a nice race. She ran well last time, she ran a good race and showed a lot of pace.”
An interesting contender is James Tate’s Kullazain, a Hello Youmzain colt who ran a green race on debut at Ripon but then came on leaps and bound to win at Sandown next time out by four and a half lengths.
“He is a lovely horse who has done nothing but improve all year, I’m sure he will improve again next year but we felt he won so well last time that he deserved his chance in a race like this,” said the trainer.
“He’s got to come on again and become a bit more professional but I’d like to think he has, he will need to improve to win this but we felt he deserved a chance.”
