Lazy Griff team keen to take stock after comeback full of promise

The Middleham Park Racing team are keen to let the dust settle on Lazy Griff’s promising return to action at Sandown before committing to future plans – but a tilt at Gold Cup glory at Royal Ascot appears unlikely.

Placed behind Lambourn in the Derby at Epsom and the Irish Derby last season, the Charlie Johnston-trained colt appeared a major contender for the St Leger before an injury that required surgery ruled him out of the season’s final Classic.

He made his return from 11 months off the track in Thursday’s Henry II Stakes over two miles and while he performed with plenty of credit in finishing third, the slowly-run nature of the race led Johnston to saying afterwards: “Does it give me clarity on where I’m going in the short to medium term? I’m not sure it does. That wasn’t exactly a proper test at two miles so two and a half (in the Gold Cup) would be a real leap into the unknown.”

Middleham Park’s managing director Tom Palin reported Lazy Griff to be in good shape the day after his comeback run, but he too is unsure whether the Gold Cup is the right target.

He said: “He seems fine, obviously sometimes it can be 24 or 48 hours before anything shows, but so far so good.

“Before the race I think he weighed in 12 kilos heavy compared to what they think his racing weight is, for all horses change over the winter, so he did have a good blow afterwards and we expected that going into it – we knew he’d need it.

“Where we go from here, I’m not sure. First of all let’s make sure he’s in A1 nick over the weekend, but Will Buick said he showed loads of speed and he wasn’t sure about going any further. That doesn’t mean we’re ruling out going any further, but for the time being we might just listen to that and either stick to two miles or come back in trip.”

He added: “It probably reiterates what we thought last year – even going into the Chester Vase last spring we thought the St Leger was him and this year we’re probably thinking the Irish St Leger is him.

“We might end up going for the Goodwood Cup on the way and we might end up going to France for races over there, but first of all we want to make sure we’ve got the horse and let the dust settle.

“We’ll probably run somewhere in June, which is unlikely to be the Gold Cup. If you’re going to beat Sweet William (second in Henry II Stakes), you’re probably going to do it getting 6lb rather than at level weights at Ascot, especially when you’re not sure whether an additional four furlongs will bring about improvement or regression.

“It’s all in the melting pot, but it looks like he’s trained on fully, for all that we’ve got some fitness to improve on and and potential distance tweaking to do.”