Gethin poised to make debut for Wathnan at Sandown Gethin will sport the silks of Wathnan Racing for the first time in the Star Sports Brigadier Gerard Stakes later this month, but an outing at Royal Ascot appears unlikely for the leading owners’ new signing. Owen Burrows’ four-year-old is the latest star acquisition by the Emir of Qatar’s racing operation after the colt made a winning return at Kempton in the Listed Magnolia Stakes. However, despite Wathnan’s fine recent record at the Royal meeting, Ascot is deemed to not be on the agenda for the son of Ghaiyyath, who holds an entry for the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown later in the summer. Before that lofty entry becomes reality, Gethin will first put his big-race credentials to the test when he races at Group level for the first time at the Esher track on May 28 in a race Burrows won with Hukum in 2023. Wathnan’s racing adviser Richard Brown said: “He’s probably not going to go to Royal Ascot and just where he is at in his training, Owen feels that is not going to be at the right time for him. “He needs to run again before we pitch him into the real deep waters and the plan is to run him in the Brigadier Gerard. “Depending on what happens there will determine then what we do. We hope he’s up to running in some big races after that, but we just don’t know yet so we will take it one step at a time.”
