Jonquil en route to Lockinge test Having served a reminder of his class at Ascot, Jonquil is out to prove he is the fly in the ointment in a red-hot Boyle Sports Lockinge Stakes at Newbury. A winner of the Greenham at Newbury last term before going close in the French 2000 Guineas, Andrew Balding’s four-year-old again showcased his very best early in the season when making a winning return in the Listed Paradise Stakes earlier this month. Having impressed there in the hands of Colin Keane, he is 16-1 with the race sponsors to make his mark not only in elite company, but also at the Kingsclere team’s local track. Balding said: “He’s obviously started well winning at Ascot really quite impressively. He’s a horse we’ve always thought a lot of and one I’d hope he will prove very competitive in a Group One at some stage this year.” “We’ve been delighted with him since Ascot and he seems in good spirits out on exercise. It’s quite a quick turnaround, just about two weeks but the feeling is that he’s recovered well from Ascot and, seems at his best form at home. “The Lockinge has been in our minds for a while, but obviously we were waiting to see how he performed at Ascot before committing to the race. But once it all went well, it was always the intention to run at Newbury.” He went on: “We’ve had a couple of horses placed in the Lockinge before, so it’d be lovely as Newbury is our local track. “It would be lovely to win it one day and my dad (Ian Balding) was lucky enough to win it a couple of times (with Silly Season in 1966 and Selkirk in 1992) so I would try and catch him up one day.” In a big afternoon for the local handler, Newbury’s Saturday card will also see the return of Balding’s Group One star Kalpana, who is due to reappear in the Sky Sports Racing Aston Park Stakes. Having signed off last season with a second victory on British Champions Day, she has been kept in training in search of further top honours, with another visit to her beloved Ascot earmarked as a possible target for the height of summer. Balding added: “Kalpana has been a star since she came to Kingsclere. She’s won obviously a couple of Group ones and performed at a very high level in other races. “She’s historically probably needed that first run or she did last year, to really put her straight and we’ve been looking for somewhere close to home just to blow the cobwebs away. “She carries a 7lb penalty, but at the same time, I think she’s in great form and she’s probably the best horse in the race, so I’d hope she would run really well. “I think her campaign would be probably as similar to what it was last year with the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes (July 25), very much her sort of primary summer target. “Anything is possible with her because she’s a very high class horse, and I think she’d be effective over a mile and quarter on slower ground, up to a mile and a half. So she’s got all sorts of options.”
