Atavus to stay in group company

Atavus will continue to be campaigned in Group-race company following his all-the-way success in the Stan James Hungerford Stakes at Newbury on Saturday.

The George Margarson-trained four-year-old, sent off at 33-1, beat a high-class line-up, which included Sagitta 2000 Guineas runner-up Tamburlaine and Darley July Cup third Misraah, in the seven-furlong Group Three contest under a fine tactical ride from Jamie Mackay.

'We`d already got a few plans going for him,' Margarson said today. 'Obviously if he`d got well beaten we`d have gone for the Tote Trifecta.

'There`s a Group Three in Tipperary and another one in Dusseldorf. We`ll try another Group Three and then try and step him up.

'It`s difficult because there aren`t many seven-furlong races. I think at a mile they`d have him.

'I couldn`t see him being that good over a mile - it proved that in the Hunt Cup and Goodwood Mile (fourth both times).

'I`m digging deep to find some races for him. I`ll keep him to seven in these type of races.

'I`ll give him a couple of weeks off and see how he is.'

The Newmarket trainer has not ruled out a tilt at the big Ascot handicap on September 29th.

He said: 'I`ll enter him in the Tote Trifecta and see what the handicapper does but it can be a bog by then and he`s a fast-ground horse.

'And you never know, by the end of September the horse might have gone over the top.'