Saturday's G3 Betway Winter Derby at Lingfield features the return of one of 2016's most-improve performers in Mutakayyef (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) as the Shadwell representative treads a path towards World Cup night. Successful in the G2 Summer Mile at Ascot in July before finishing third in the G1 Juddmonte International at York the following month and GI Woodbine Mile in September, the G1 Dubai Turf-bound gelding carries a five-pound penalty for his pattern-race winning exploits.
“He is a horse who seems to be better for a run, mentally as much as physically,” explained the operation's racing manager Angus Gold. “I'm not saying he's not ready enough to win, but I'm sure whatever he does on Saturday he'll improve from it as he's not the sort of horse you can just point and push–he takes a bit of winding up. In a perfect world, I think we'd have preferred to run him over a furlong shorter first time out, but there just wasn't a suitable opportunity to do so. He does stay a mile and a quarter, but it could be argued that his best form is over a mile, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's a good starting point and will get him ready for the Dubai Turf, which I believe is the plan.”
Defending champion Grendisar (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) is back after a warm-up fourth in the course-and-distance Listed Winter Derby Trial three weeks ago, where the re-opposing Battalion (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) was a short head in front in third.
Grendisar's trainer Marco Botti said, “Grendisar hasn't quite had things go his way so far this winter. He has been running decent races and the Winter Derby Trial was a very competitive race last time. It took him three races to get to his best last winter and we could not be happier with what we have seen at home. Whether it's enough to beat Mutakayyef, who sets a very high standard, we will see.”
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