Alflaila will return to action with two options at Royal Ascot

The five-year-old has three Group victories and a Listed prize to his name.

Owen Burrows’ Alflaila is set to return to action at Royal Ascot as he has two options at the showpiece summer meeting.

The son of Dark Angel, now a five-year-old, has an impressive CV with three Group victories and a Listed prize to his name.

Three of those successes came in the second half of 2023, when he took the Pomfret Stakes, the Strensall Stakes and the Darley Stakes before his bid for the Bahrain International Trophy was scuppered by injury.

He returned to action the following season to win the York Stakes and then step up to Group One level to finish fifth when not out of place in the Irish Champion Stakes.

Injury intervened again and he has not been seen since, though he has been rehabilitating and returning to fitness all the while and is now due to return at Royal Ascot.

Alflaila and Jim Crowley in action
Alflaila and Jim Crowley in action (Mike Egerton/PA)

Alflaila has an entry for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes over a mile and a quarter, but the Listed Wolferton Stakes over the same trip will also be considered.

“He’s on the march so to speak, so I’ve left him in the Prince of Wales’s at Royal Ascot,” said Burrows.

“He did a nice bit of work on Saturday and he’s got a couple of important bits this week, we might go for the Prince of Wales’s or we might lower our sights a bit and go for the Wolferton.

“This will be his first run for quite a while, but hopefully you’ll see him in one of those races.”

Also aiming for the big meeting is Alyanaabi, whose fifth-placed 2000 Guineas run has looked increasingly useful as the second- and third-placed horses – Rosallion and Haatem – were the winner and the runner-up respectively in the Irish version of the race.

Cambridgeshire Meeting – Day One – Newmarket Racecourse
Alyanaabi (left) winning the Tattersalls Stakes (Tim Goode/PA)

“All being well he is going to go for the St James’s Palace, the Guineas form is stacking up pretty strongly,” Burrows said of the colt.

“We’ve got a few lengths to make up on the winner, on the second and on the third, to be fair, but we’re on another day and another track.

“It’s different, the old mile, I think it’ll suit him better so we’re rolling the dice and we’re going to go there.”

War Rooms is another headed to the Royal spectacular and will have two options as he looks to build on his third-placed run in the Dante at York.

“He’ll have an entry in the Hampton Court and I left him in the King Edward VII as well,” Burrows said.

“We’ll take a look at both races and speak to the owners to see which is the best option for him – all being well he’ll be there.”

Burrows’ Deira Mile was fourth in the Derby, another positive result in a competitive start to a season the Lambourn trainer only hopes will get better from here on in.

He said: “We’re very fortunate. I didn’t want to tempt fate but I thought we had a nice few three-year-olds.

“We’ve had the fifth in the Guineas, third in the Dante, fourth in the Derby, we’re knocking on the door and we could just do with one of them getting their head in front.”

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