Parade Worries For Rakti Team

Michael Jarvis has expressed his concerns over how the pre-race parade will affect Rakti´s performance in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.

The enigmatic six-year-old is renowned for his highly-strung temperament and was hard to control when going to post before his last start, the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot at York.

'He´s been very effective on the Rowley Mile - he won the Champion Stakes here two years ago, so the track holds no fears for us,' Jarvis said.

'The parade does a little bit. For a horse of his temperament, a parade is really the last thing we need.

'Speaking personally, I think they are an absolute waste of time. They upset a lot of horses, who, sometimes, don´t produce their true form.'

Clerk of the course Michael Prosser attempted to allay Jarvis´ concerns by outlining the horses will not be expected to walk in front of the grandstand - as is sometimes the drill for Group One races at other tracks.

Prosser said: 'The parade will be the same as for the Guineas. We are not going to be walking down the course.

'They shall be go out in racecard order and I will let them all go together and I will ask the jockeys to leave a little gap from the one in front. It will be a good simple parade.'

Rakti, who has not run since finishing second in the Queen Anne, has been pleasing Jarvis with his preparations, which included a recent spin at Lingfield.

The master of Kremlin House added: 'He is working very well. He´s galloped around Lingfield - a mile around the Polytrack - and he was on his best behaviour.

'Of course, the atmosphere of an empty racecourse is quite different to what will it be on Saturday. But he´s fit and well.

'He has won his first race for the last three seasons, so long breaks are probably advantageous to him.'

When Rakti won the Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes in May he blazed a trail on the way to an emphatic success.

But the horse, who will be ridden by Philip Robinson, will not necessarily try and make all on Saturday.

Jarvis said: 'He doesn´t have to make the running. In the QEII last year he never took it up until they came into the straight. He´s won several times like that.

'He likes to go his own pace. If there´s a pacemaker there who´s going very quick, we´re certainly not going to try to be in front of it.

'But Philip knows the horse very well and I will leave the tactics up to him.'

? PA Sport