Repeater, near side© Photo Healy Racing
Amanda Mooney is confident of a big run when Repeater travels over to York to contest the valuable Fine Equinity Stakes Handicap at York on Wednesday.
The Montjeu gelding gave Mooney her first training success when pipping subsequent Cork Derby winner Alveena by a head in a 50,000 euro handicap at the Curragh on Irish 2,000 Guineas Day in May.
The seven-year-old has since finished third at Epsom and fourth in the Guinness Handicap at Galway.
The Co Meath-based handler believes she has her stable star in rude health ahead of his assignment in this £60,000 race over an extended two miles.
She said: "His form has been franked by Alveena and by the Epsom race. He was unlucky in Galway, he travelled very well. He's as well as he was at the Curragh.
"I think he has a serious chance but with Repeater it's always an each-way chance as he's a tricky horse. He lives out all the time with a companion and only comes in to get tacked up or to go to the races, I think that keeps him sane.
"He's back to his best and I think he'll be better on better ground. We don't get good to firm often in Ireland. He has bottom weight and Killian Leonard takes a further 7lb off him.
"Killian is riding well and let's hope it continues. He knows him very well and he gave him a good ride to win in the Curragh.
"Repeater was third in the Group Two Doncaster Cup before [when trained by David O'Meara in 2013]. I got him in the Horses In Training Sale two years ago. If he runs well in York, he'll go for the Cesarewitch in England.
"I have six in training now but can take more."
Mooney recently acquired Grand Canyon from David O'Meara and expects the four-year-old, who won a handicap in Redcar at the end of May, to be out on the Flat in the first or second week of September before embarking on a career over jumps.
