Mutasaabeq out to prove mile credentials in Summer Mile Connections of Mutasaabeq go in search of answers in a fascinating renewal of the Fred Cowley MBE Summer Mile at Ascot on Saturday. A select field of seven line up for the Group Two feature with the Charlie Hills-trained runner out to prove he stays the trip. The four-year-old, who is owned by Shadwell, has won four of his nine career starts, but after a promising neck second to Lights On in the bet365 Mile at Sandown, Megallan mastered him by a length and a quarter over an extended mile in the Diomed Stakes at Epsom. Shadwell’s racing manager, Angus Gold, says Mutasaabeq has to step up to the mark. “I can’t use the trip at Epsom as an excuse,” said Gold. “Personally, I don’t think the track suited him. “There’s no real huge reasoning, but I was never convinced it was going to be his track and I just don’t think he was at home on it. “But, having said that, he needs to get on and win now, this fella. “Whether he’s good enough to go and win a Group Two or not, we don’t know. There’s a couple of good, hard-knocking horses in there, so he’s going to have to step up. He still hasn’t won a stakes race yet. “Everybody feels that he does get the mile. People are entitled to their opinions, but the opinion of those closest to him is that he does stay. “On his run at Sandown, you couldn’t say he was beaten for stamina there, he was unlucky. He should have won and was staying on up the hill.”
