Royal Ascot© Photo Healy Racing
Owen Burrows is confident Wadilsafa will handle both the step up in class and trip he will encounter in the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot next week.
The Lambourn handler is strongly in favour of running the son of Frankel in the mile and a quarter Group Three contest next Thursday after reporting him to have worked well on Tuesday morning.
After finishing second behind fellow Frankel offspring Herculean on his debut at Ascot in September, the Hamdan Al Maktoum-owned colt emphatically turned the tables on that rival on his seasonal reappearance at Newmarket last month.
Burrows said: “He is entered in the Hampton Court and that is the plan. It is 70-30 he goes there at the moment. He worked fine on Tuesday.
“He is always very relaxed in his gallop work, but he can be on it on the odd day in his routine canters. I think that is just him and I don’t think we will change that.
“Obviously it is a big step up in class and trip, but Angus Gold (racing manager for owner) has informed me that they will have nothing else in the race, so Jim Crowley will ride him.”
Burrows believes Laraaib can make his presence felt when dropping back in class for Tuesday’s Wolferton Stakes.
The four-year-old son of Pivotal will contest the Listed event which closes the opening card after finding only Poet’s Word too strong in the Group Three Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown last time out.
The Lambourn handler said: “That was a good run by Laraaib at Sandown and he really pleased me.
“Although he holds an entry in the Hardwicke, I think the Wolferton, now that it is just a normal Listed event, is the more logical race to run him in.
“Where as he might have been a 25-1 shot in the Hardwicke, I imagine he will be near the head of the betting for the Wolferton.
“We all want to have winners at Royal Ascot and I think that the Wolferton is his best chance.”
