Passenger on right track to make Ascot return Passenger could return at Royal Ascot after George Scott issued a positive bulletin on his high-class new recruit. Owned by the Niarchos Family and previously trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the son of Ulysses suffered an interrupted campaign following his victorious comeback at Chester last term, sustaining a condylar fracture at York on just his second start in late July. He is being gradually readied to make his first start since crossing Newmarket to join Scott, who said: “When Passenger arrived we were very much seeing which direction he took us in after his injuries, but he’s been training beautifully and I’m very pleased with his trajectory at the moment. “You can easily see why he has been able to show a really high level of form during parts of his short career and of course it’s very much a week-by-week thing with him, but I’m very pleased with his conditioning.” Passenger’s somewhat unfortunate luck with injuries has seen him make the track just six times in his career but he has shown his class when winning on three occasions, with his only really disappointing run coming when well beaten in the 2023 Derby. Given his quality, Scott is minded to aim accordingly and a trip to the Royal meeting could soon be in the offing, with the Wolferton Stakes identified as the ideal starting point. Scott continued: “I guess with a horse like him and his rating, there are very few options and I’ll be keeping half an eye on the Wolferton Stakes at Royal Ascot. “The timing fits and if he does turn up in the Wolferton he would have been away for racecourse gallops, so I’m keeping an eye on the Royal meeting, but everything will have to go right and he will have to jump through every hoop.”
