Maximilian all set for Abergwaun challenge Tim Pitt believes the return to a fast-run five furlongs is an advantage to Sir Maximilian in the Kilfrush Stud Abergwaun Stakes at Tipperary on Friday. The speedy five-year-old was an impressive winner of the valuable Rockingham Handicap on his last visit to Ireland last month. Last weekend he finished a perfectly respectable seventh in the 32Red Cup at Goodwood, a performance Pitt rated as the best of his life, but the Shropshire trainer expects him to be even better suited by a return to the minimum trip. "The formbook tells us he's best over five furlongs but he does stays six," said Pitt. "I just think a fast-run five plays to his strengths. "We had a look in the programme book for races at home for him and there wasn't much, he'd have been coming up against the Group One horses with his rating as it is now. "This option was there for us. I know it comes quite quick, but he came out of Goodwood very well and I thought that was a career-best run, even though he finished seventh. "He was only beaten just over three lengths and all the right horses were around him like Muthmir and Discussiontofollow." The other British-based raider is John Butler's filly, One Chance, trained by Pitt last year when she showed smart form as a two-year-old. "She is a fast filly, so hopefully we'll get the fast-run race that we need," said Pitt "The lads assure me that Tipperary is one of the fastest five's in Ireland." Russian Soul, Jamesie and Abstraction also feature in the nine-runner field.
