Camacho team eyeing more top honours for Significantly

Craven meeting comeback under consideration for consistent sprinter.

Julie Camacho’s Significantly will bid for more handicap riches this season after a productive campaign last year.

The six-year-old ran seven times and never finished far from the action when winning twice and placing second on three occasions.

He was in particularly good form in the latter part of the term, missing out by just a short head when second in the Portland at Doncaster before going on to land the Ayr Gold Cup.

He then ran another fine race to end the season in the Coral Sprint Trophy at York, finishing second again when outdone only by William Haggas’ Montassib.

The latter horse began his campaign in good style when taking the Listed Cammidge Trophy Stakes on Town Moor at the weekend, a nice boost to Significantly’s form from the Knavesmire.

Significantly (left) finishing second in the Betfred Portland during the Betfred St Leger Festival at Doncaster
Significantly (left) finishing second in the Betfred Portland during the Betfred St Leger Festival at Doncaster

Listed and Group level races could end up on his agenda this season, but there may be more lucrative handicap pots to be targeted before that transition is made.

“He’s in really good shape, he’s forward,” said Steve Brown, Camacho’s husband and assistant.

“He’s a horse that likes cut in the ground so he may start in a fortnight at the Craven meeting in the six-furlong handicap there.

“There are a couple of races we’re keeping an eye on for him but he’s wintered really well.

“He had a positive year last season and he looks every bit as well, he’s on as good terms with himself as he was then.

“We’re in the twilight zone, that grey area where we’re behind the handicapper but it doesn’t quite make sense yet to run in a Listed or Group Three race.

“We’ll keep an eye on them all though, because the one thing we know is that there are a lot less runners in them than in these big-field handicaps.

“It was interesting to see that the horse that beat him at York at the back end of last year won a Listed race quite cosily on Saturday.

“That catches your attention, he’s a horse that might suit a Listed race in Ireland. We’ll keep an open mind and we’re really pleased with his well being, which is the main thing at this time of year.”

Significantly is owned by Niall O’Keeffe, who, alongside the Camacho team, had a good result at Doncaster at the weekend with new purchase Lattam.

The Lope De Vega gelding was bought out of William Haggas’ yard at the end of last season with an Irish Lincolnshire title to his name after he landed that Curragh contest in 2023.

He aimed to add a Lincoln to that title on Saturday and found only one horse too good, finishing second to Mr Professor when having to throw down a challenge from fairly far back in the field.

The run still earnt him over GBP 36,000 and replenished a good chunk of his 50,000 guineas purchase price, with connections hopeful there will be more where that came from as the big mile handicaps will be considered for him throughout the season.

“He’s come out of it fresh and well, he’ll have a quiet week and then I suppose the obvious place to look at is Newbury,” Brown said of the chestnut.

“We know he’s a horse who is ground dependent so we’ll be keen to get another run or two into him in the spring and go from there.

“It was a good, solid start. He could have been a touch closer but I don’t think he’d have beaten the winner, who won well on the day.

“That was pleasing for Niall, these are the sorts of horses he targets to run in the big handicaps and festivals on Saturdays.

“He was thrilled with him, we all were, and we’re looking forward to seeing him run again.”

Lattam is likely to be campaigned in two phases, making the most of the softer spring ground and then lying low in the summer before returning to action in the autumn with Ascot’s Balmoral Handicap in his sights.

Brown said: “The race we’d really love to run him is the Balmoral Handicap, by virtue of him being a soft ground horse, he could go into that race without as much racing as some of them have had at that time of year.

“You’re almost working back from that to a degree, obviously we hope he can strike before then but it would be very much on our minds if you were asking me to name one race for him now.”

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