Doyle sure Longchamp will be ‘perfect’ track for Al Kazeem

The in-demand rider, newly-appointed jockey to Frankel’s owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, is relishing a first crack at Europe’s end-of-season middle-distance showpiece with Roger Charlton’s five-year-old, who has won three Group Ones this year at a mile and a quarter.

Al Kazeem found the going on Knavesmire too quick when he was third to Declaration Of War in the Juddmonte International, York’s richest race, before finishing a creditable second to The Fugue – the Yorkshire Oaks heroine – in the Irish Champion Stakes.

Significantly, Al Kazeem was running on at the end of the 10-furlong Group One at Leopardstown and the extra two furlongs in Paris could play to the horse’s strengths.

“I rode at Longchamp a couple of weeks ago; for the first time I walked the whole of the track and I thought it would be perfect for him.” said Doyle.

“That nice false straight and long straight, it takes plenty of getting and I thought it was the perfect track for him.

“The race looks pretty tough after watching the trials at the weekend; Treve looked spectacular the way she quickened up and Orfevre couldn’t have won any easier, so the competition is pretty strong.

“Al Kazeem has done really well to have done what he’s done over a mile and a quarter and on good to firm and sometimes firm ground.

“I’ve ridden him once over a mile and a half on soft ground and he was pretty awesome that day. I’m not really a sectionals man, but I read somewhere that the last five furlongs of that race were 0.02 seconds slower than a six-furlong Group Three on the card.

“That just shows he’s a pretty useful horse over a mile and a half with cut in the ground.”

The new favourite is Treve after the filly won the Prix Vermeille, a key Arc trial, under a rejuvenated Frankie Dettori. “I wouldn’t like to swap her at this stage,” he said.

Trawlerman’s son George Margarson is praying for an Indian summer so he can give Lucky Kristale the chance of Group One glory in the Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday week.

The trainer, who began his career at Beverley, dearly wants to run the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes and Lowther winner in the six-furlong championship race for two-year-old fillies, but would love to see warm and dry conditions. “I would not run again this season if it went wet,” he said.

Sun Central, a leading contender for York’s Ebor before being withdrawn at the 48-hour stage due to ground concerns, has been ruled out of the Emirates Melbourne Cup after suffering a setback.

Skipton-born William Haggas had entered the four-year-old for the November 5 feature after he won Listed races at York and Chester on his last two starts.

Haggas said: “Unfortunately he won’t be going. Hopefully he’ll make it next year instead.”

Former champion conditional jumps jockey Brian Hughes had a significant winner at Pontefract yesterday on Riptide, from the yard of Welsh National-winning trainer Michael Scudamore.

Victory in the two mile-plus test was the second on the Flat this summer for Hughes, who has been riding out regularly at Kevin Ryan’s Hambleton yard.

North Yorkshire jockey Robert Winston was in treble form on day one of the Ayr Gold Cup meeting yesterday with a hat-trick courtesy of David Barron’s Red Stargazer, and then the John Quinn-trained pair of Evanescent and Calculated Risk.

It was a landmark day for Yorkshire runners at the Scottish track – all eight races were run by horses trained in this county.

They included Boris Grigoriev, who finally returned to winning ways for Sheriff Hutton’s Mick Easterby in the Brewin Dolphin Handicap.

Last successful at Tipperary in 2011 when trained by Aidan O’Brien, he had a rating of 101 when the veteran handler paid 34,000 guineas for him.

In 12 races last season and one prior to this, the four-year-old had shown precious little of the form he possessed at Ballydoyle prior to yesterday’s welcome win under Graham Gibbons.