Tregoning hopes to keep Nayef

Marcus Tregoning is hopeful his Dubai Champion Stakes winner Nayef will remain at his Kingwood House Stables over the winter to be prepared for his four-year-old campaign.

Nayef is owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and it is occasionally the policy to ship some of his best horses to Dubai over the winter with a view to being trained the following year under the Godolphin banner.

'I imagine he`ll stay here but you never know,' the trainer said today. 'We are hopeful we`ll keep him but we`ve had a lot of fun whatever happens.

'The top and bottom of it is we are lucky enough to have had him in the first place which is quite important because, if you don`t get these nice horses, you don`t get the chance to run in these nice races.'

Nayef beat Godolphin`s Tobougg by three-quarters of a length with outsider Indian Creek another four back in third in Saturday`s Group One contest and has taken the race in his stride.

Tregoning said: 'He`s come out of it very well. We are very happy with him. He only lost 7lb in weight, which was great.

'He`s fresh and bright this morning. It`s always over the next couple of days that you are going to notice changes but just at the moment he`s in very good form.

'We`ll get the weight back on him quite quickly before he goes into the winter and then he`ll thrive, hopefully.'