Testing ground could see Al Aasy bypass Newbury Al Aasy may be forced to sidestep an appearance in the BetVictor St Simon Stakes at Newbury on Saturday if the ground turns testing. William Haggas’ evergreen nine-year-old has been in the form of his life this season, winning at Group Two level for the first time as well as adding another couple of Group Threes to his record, including last time out at Ascot. He ran in the St Simon Stakes 12 months ago but finished tailed off behind his stablemate Hamish on soft ground and connections would be unwilling to ask him to go through it again at this stage of his career. “This year has been right up there with his best ever, he’s been fantastic,” said Angus Gold, racing manager for Al Aasy’s owners, Shadwell. “We’ve got to just make sure it is the right thing to do, I know they’ve had a lot of rain around Lambourn so I don’t know yet whether he’ll be running or not. “I know William thinks the horse is still in good form so he’s keen to run him again, but it’s a conversation we need to have. “I’m sure he’d like a bit of easy ground but whether he wants to swim, I don’t know. We ran him last year in it and he hated the ground, and I don’t want him to go out on a note like that as he’s been that good to us. “We’ll talk about his future after his last run, whether that is now or after the weekend.” On the other side of the coin, Karl Burke expects conditions to suit his St Simon Stakes contender Al Qareem. The seven-year-old added a 13th career win to his tally in a Listed event at Musselburgh in the spring, but he was well held in Chester’s Ormonde Stakes and was last seen weakening into fourth place in the Grand Cup at York in June. Burke told Sky Sports Racing: “Al Qareem hasn’t had a great season, we haven’t been able to run him too much and it’s been a bit stop-start with him, but he seems in good form and he’ll love the ground. “A mile and a half is as short as he wants, but he’s fine on soft ground and I’m looking forward to seeing him run again and getting him back on track.” The Spigot Lodge handler appears more confident about his intended runner in the other Group Three on the card, with Golden Souk stepping up in class for the BetVictor Horris Hill Stakes following a winning debut at Redcar a month ago. “He’s a very exciting horse. He won despite being very green and despite them going very slow at Redcar on his debut and he’ll step up an awful lot on that form,” Burke added. “He’s a very useful animal and hopefully he’ll show up well on Saturday.”
