Blue Bajan just what the doctor ordered for Gold Cup

This is a bay gelding who has been sidelined for more than a year with a tendon strain to his near foreleg.

This is the former top-class hurdler who was sent to rookie trainer David O’Meara’s Ryedale yard because his owners, Dr John Hollowood and his wife Claire, wanted their horse trained locally.

This is the contender who had to be supplemented as a later entry into Europe’s blue riband race for staying Flat horses, at a cost of £25,000, because connections doubted his Royal Ascot credentials.

This was before Blue Bajan beat a stellar field in Sandown’s prestigious Henry II Stakes last month, a respected Gold Cup trial, when he pulled clear by seven effortless lengths.

No wonder O’Meara, a former NH jockey who has held a training licence at the expansionist Arthington Barn Stables at Nawton, near York, for a year is in a relaxed mood ahead of his first Group One runner.

He has not even bought a morning suit – he has simply hired an outfit for the one race at Royal Ascot where the Queen traditionally presents the prize to the winning connections.

“I don’t know when I’ll next have a horse good enough,” joked the 34-year-old, who brought up his half-century of winners earlier this month when Smarty Socks prevailed at Doncaster.

Yet his self-depracation – O’Meara was previously most famous for his successful association with Tim Easterby’s consistent chaser Turgeonev – masks a fierce determination to succeed and also become the first Yorkshire trainer to win Royal Ascot’s signature race since Mark Johnston’s Royal Rebel completed the second of his back-to-back victories in 2002.

Victory would also reward the commitment shown by long-time racehorse owner Roger Fell, who had the vision to acquire these stables and set up Helmsley House Racing, with a whole team who O’Meara says are pivotal to the yard’s continuing success.

It takes a determined individual to open a new stable when racing’s finances are in the doldrums but Fell’s ambition has been rewarded – first with James Hetherton, backed by O’Meara, and then the latter becoming a fully-fledged trainer in his own right a year ago.

His first runner was, ironically, at Royal Ascot a year ago when Bay of Fires, a 100-1 outsider, was 17th to Richard Hannon’s Memory in the Albany Stakes.

Blue Bajan, however, is a far more realistic contender – indeed O’Meara suggests that his horse deserves to be second favourite behind Aidan O’Brien’s Fame and Glory, a past winner of four Group One races.

His confidence is not misplaced. Far from it. When trained by Andy Turnell in Wiltshire, Blue Bajan was good enough to win the 2008 Swinton Hurdle at Haydock – one of the top NH handicaps – when he was given a supreme ride by Ferdy Murphy’s stable jockey Graham Lee.

Those who rode the horse over hurdles never doubted his speed.

“It was his jumping,” said Tom Scudamore, who was second on Blue Bajan at Aintree’s 2008 Grand National meeting.

“He just wasn’t man enough at his hurdles. He was too careful. You knew, though, you were sitting on a special horse because of his speed between flights.”

Such sentiments from such a seasoned observer give O’Meara even more confidence, especially as concerns surround the likelihood of the market leaders – including Fame and Glory – seeing out the marathon two-and-a-half-mile trip.

“I couldn’t be happier, though this is a different league to the Albany. This time, we have a realistic chance,” said O’Meara while the horse, ears pricked, willingly posed for pictures and obeyed his trainer’s commands.

“He’s been chilling out in between routine canters. Nothing special. He had a week off after Sandown but he did a great piece of work on Saturday. The owners are great. Dr Hollowood, and his wife Claire, live at Helmsley and wanted to move their horse closer to home. We couldn’t be closer – just three-and-a-half miles.

“We were doing pretty well and it was suggested by Guy Stephenson, who runs Cliff Stud at Helmsley for Sir Henry Cecil, that Blue Bajan comes to us.

“It would be great to follow Sir Henry’s footsteps, given his record in the race with the likes of Le Moss and Ardross. Blue Bajan is nine now, though. He may not get another chance.”

Under unheralded jockey Daniel Tudhope, the horse was a creditable sixth to Donald McCain’s dual-purpose horse Overturn, last year’s Northumberland Plate winner, in the Chester Cup – Blue Bajan’s first outing since injury.

Yet it was his Yorkshire Cup performance which confirmed that O’Meara had a special horse on his hands.

Understandably worried about running Blue Bajan twice in nine days after such a lengthy lay-off, he was only beaten half-a-length by John Gosden’s Duncan, who was the beneficiary of a fine piece of tactical riding by Northern Racing College graduate William Buick.

From there, it was on to Sandown where the gelding pulled clear of a quality field that included Holberg, Frankie Dettori’s mount in today’s big race.

“I can’t believe we’re only the third favourite at 10-1, the same price as Holberg,” said O’Meara.

“We were 10 lengths clear of Holberg at Sandown. We were closing on Duncan, the second favourite, at York – there are doubts about where he will stay and Fame and Glory has never gone beyone one mile six furlongs.

“He could be the next Yeats, who won the race four times. You certainly have to respect Mr O’Brien but I’m confident we’re not going there to make up the numbers.”