Knight Seeks Derby Trial Glory

Decorated Knight | Racing Post

Saturday's Listed Betway Winter Derby Trial at Lingfield sees the return of one of last season's upwardly-mobile performers in Decorated Knight (GB) (Galileo {Ire}). Out just four times in 2016, Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar's still lightly-raced 5-year-old was successful in the Listed Festival S. over this trip at Goodwood in May and in the nine-furlong G3 Meld S. at Leopardstown in July. One who steps down a notch is the Ballymacoll Stud homebred Arab Spring (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}), who is another with few miles on the clock despite his age of seven. His latest win came on the Polytrack in the G3 September S. over a mile and a half, after which he was second in Ascot's G3 Cumberland Lodge S. on unsuitably soft turf at that trip and a disappointing fourth in the G1 Premio Jockey Club at the San Siro in October. Both carry penalties for the pattern-race successes, which could play into the hands of the specialist Grendisar (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Successful in this for the past two seasons, he enjoyed a particular purple patch last spring when adding the G3 Winter Derby itself and the Easter Classic All-Weather Middle Distance Championships Conditions S. to his tally. Trainer Marco Botti hopes he is the same shape now. “It looks a tough race this year, but our horse is in good form and we're looking forward to running,” he said. “Last year it took him a couple of runs to get up to speed and I definitely think he's as good as he was this time last year. There is a lot of money on offer now for the finals, so people are running better horses on the all-weather than they used to. It won't be easy, but Grendisar loves the track and has always shown his best form at Lingfield, so we have to be hopeful.”

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