Ground key to Lazy Griff return at Sandown Lazy Griff is poised to make his first competitive appearance since last year’s Irish Derby in the Star Sports Henry II Stakes at Sandown on Thursday – but his participation is ground dependent. Although winless in three starts in his Classic season, Charlie Johnston’s charge carried the Middleham Park Racing silks with distinction in defeat, finishing best of the rest behind Lambourn in the Chester Vase and the Derby at Epsom before finishing third behind the same rival at the Curragh. With a planned tilt at the St Leger scuppered by injury, Johnston is looking forward to getting his stable star back on the racecourse and views Sandown’s two-mile Group Two as an ideal starting point, but he is concerned about underfoot conditions. Speaking after seeing his Derby contender Ancient Egypt gallop at Epsom on Tuesday morning, the trainer said: “I’m going straight from here to Sandown to walk the track. He’s been declared, but obviously coming back from 11 months off, having had surgery on a knee, running him on very quick ground first time back would be a concern. “We’d like to run him, he’s in good order and ready to go. The management put a lot of water down (at Sandown), so we might be OK.” Johnston is anxious to get Lazy Griff’s campaign under way, with suitable options to run elsewhere thin on the ground. He went on: “There’s not an obvious or easy one. He is in the Coronation Cup, but that would be throwing him in at the deep end after 11 months off presuming Calandagan and Jan Brueghel and co are there. “There is a mile-and-a-half Group Two in Chantilly on Sunday and that is the only obvious alternative I can see in the next 10 days.” While Lazy Griff has not yet raced beyond a mile and a half, Johnston is keen to learn whether he has a genuine contender for the Gold Cup on his hands, adding: “The Henry II is perfect in that it will tell us whether we should be going to the Ascot Gold Cup or not, so we would like to go there if we can, but it will be ground dependent. “At the moment he’s entered in Group Ones from a mile and a half to two and a half. Yes we thought he would improve for stepping up in trip for the Leger and he gave us all the feeling he could be a top-class Cup horse, but at the same time he’s a dual Derby-placed horse and we shouldn’t just assume that he’s slow – the form in the book says that he isn’t. “That is why he’s entered in the Coronation Cup and who knows, he could be in the Hardwicke and the King George rather than the Ascot Gold Cup, but everything about him last year gave you the feeling he’ll improve when he goes further. “Races like the Irish Leger will be the obvious D-days for him later in the year, but if we could go via an Ascot Gold Cup and a Goodwood Cup that would be nice.” Lazy Griff is one of nine due to face the starter in the Henry II, with staying stalwart Sweet William among them. The latter is trained by John and Thady Gosden, who run stable star Ombudsman in the Star Sports Brigadier Gerard Stakes.
