© Photo Healy Racing
Adrian Keatley is hoping Symbol Of Strength will showcase his talent when the Gimcrack third lines up in the Unibet Sirenia Stakes at Kempton on Saturday.
Only fifth on debut at Beverley in May, he made huge strides to impress at Ayr when shedding his maiden status at the second attempt.
That promising performance was enough to book his ticket to York for the Group Two Gimcrack Stakes last month and although sent off an 80-1 outsider he surprised plenty but not his trainer when a length third to Cool Hoof Luke.
Adrian Keatly on Symbol Of Strength
Entered in both the Mill Reef and Middle Park Stakes, Keatley sees this Group Three event — where he is rated over 10lb higher than the next best on official ratings — as the perfect opportunity to register a stakes success with his son of Kodiac before those lofty targets come on the radar.
“It looks a nice opportunity for him, definitely, if you go on ratings,” said Keatley.
“He’s in the Mill Reef and he’s also in the Middle Park and he’s raring to go at home. He’s only had three runs and he’s come out of York in such good fettle that I thought this could be a nice opportunity for him to get his head in front again, hopefully, and a good boost of confidence going into his next race.
“I think the only people surprised at York were the ones looking at what price he was, we were very confident of a big run. It takes a fair horse to break the track record over five and a half furlongs at Ayr and it has been proven in the past to be a great track for trials for big two-year-old races.
“It would be nice if we could get a Group Three under our belt now before looking ahead to later in the autumn.”
Sylvester Kirk has Brian to thank for his only two victories in 2024 and his star performer returns to Pattern company after trouncing the opposition in a valuable sales event at Newmarket last time.
Placed behind Bedtime Story in the Chesham earlier in the season, the son of Shaman has always been held in high regard and Kirk has elected to come here rather than wait for the Rockingham Stakes which takes place at York next month.
“It’s only a couple of weeks since he won at Newmarket, but it’s a race where there is one horse rated 107 and the rest are all around 95 and in the 90s,” said Kirk.
“We were looking at the Rockingham and I know no Group race is easy, but you go there and there could be five, six, even seven horses rated over 100 so it’s just an opportunity we will take and hopefully he handles Kempton.
“Hopefully he will run well, it would be lovely. We’ve already had lots of fun with him and it would be nice to see him perform well.”
Also kept busy this season is Hugo Palmer’s It Ain’t Two who counts former England international striker Michael Owen among her owners and has run a further eight times since her winning debut at Newmarket in April.
She registered her third career victory on the July course recently, and her handler is keen to snare some valuable black type with a filly who thrives on racing.
“She was second in the Dragon Stakes at Sandown earlier in the season, but I think six furlongs is very much her trip at the moment,” said Palmer.
“She was very good when winning at Chester last weekend and I was quite surprised actually that she only went up 2lb. Being a filly I think her days in nurseries are probably behind her.
“She seems to really enjoy her racing and is really tough and I doubt this will be her last two-year-old start either. She’s already got black type but we’ve got to keep trying to win one.
“We’ll give it our best shot, we’ve not done a lot with her since Chester but she seems to be thriving and we will see how we go.”
