Kevin Stott’s blog: New trip will allow Blue to Thunder home at Goodwood

Ascot reflections

This weekend was awesome. Baradar winning the International Stakes was fantastic as he’s a really solid handicapper who deserved his big day and it was great to get a winner on King George day.

In the King George itself, King Of Steel ran an absolute blinder. We had a beautiful route around, he settled nicely after a furlong or so when they got into position, and a nice gap opened up around the two-furlong pole when we really needed to produce an effort. He quickened up nicely into the gap, but he was out-stayed by Hukum and Westover in the final furlong. It was his first time against his elders at a truly run mile and a half; they went a proper clip from Swinley Bottom to the line and ultimately, it was a proper stamina test. We possibly feel like he was treading water in the final furlong and was just out-stayed by older, stronger, more experienced horses, but whatever happened, he didn’t ruin his reputation or disappoint by any means. He’s a massive horse and he’ll improve next year.

He will likely be stepping down in trip; he has a couple of entries at the moment in the Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes. We feel like the Juddmonte International could come a bit too soon and it might be that the Irish Champion Stakes is the ideal route to go next time out. I’m sure he’ll be able to get his Group 1 glory at some point this year, and he certainly deserves to on what he has done. He has made us all very proud and we are very excited for the future.

Goodwood, Tuesday 

My first ride of Glorious Goodwood is on Thunder Blue in the Vintage Stakes (3.25pm). He is stepping up to seven furlongs for the first time which looks like it will help him. He was staying on in the July Stakes on his last start when looking like he was beaten, suggesting that a step up in trip will be right for him. He has won at Goodwood previously, which was over six furlongs, but they went very quickly that day and he stayed on best of them all. His form is very solid and it’s a race that has cut up a bit. Haatem is the favourite, but he is only a couple of pounds higher than us on official ratings and I think we could go pretty close with a nice run around from a good draw. This is a nice starting point to try him out at this new distance.

Next, I will be getting the leg up on Indestructible in the Lennox Stakes (4.00pm). Obviously, he is taking on his elders, so he does get a bit of a weight allowance. He needs to produce a career-best effort, however, he is a horse who has been running well all season and a little bit of juice in the ground is no harm as long as it is not awfully testing, so the going should be perfect for him. Obviously, he won the Craven Stakes, but arguably he ran a career-best over in France in the Prix Jean Prat when he looked like he was going to drop backwards before running on again. The seven-furlong trip at Goodwood is no harm for him. He races prominently and the cheekpieces seemed to do their job last time out, so I’ll be positive with him once again and hopefully, he can run a huge race.

Finally, I will see out the day on ELVENIA in the concluding handicap (5.35pm) for Kevin Ryan. She is a filly who won on debut and was held in pretty high regard last year. She picked up a setback, was off the track for a while, and then she slightly didn’t live up to expectations. On her return at Haydock, she was fresh and keen, but she ran well for a long way before tiring towards the end. Stepping back to six furlongs should help her and I’m really hoping that she can outrun her odds to produce a run that we all thought she was capable of doing last year.