Appleby thinking of Breeders’ Cup with Al Qudra after Ascot strike

Coventry fifth makes full use of his experience.

Al Qudra put his experience to good use when running out a ready winner of the Flexjet Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot and could be set for a tilt at Breeders’ Cup glory later on this year.

Charlie Appleby’s juvenile had already raced four times prior to this Listed-class contest, scoring at Lingfield before finishing a close-up fifth in the Coventry Stakes at the Royal meeting.

Stepping up to seven furlongs, William Buick was keen to control the pace out in front on the 4-1 chance, with the other four runners bunched up in behind.

At the business end of the contest, battle-hardened Al Qudra found much more than his rivals and galloped to the line to beat New Century by two and a quarter lengths, with odds-on favourite Chancellor back in third after encountering some trouble in running.

Appleby has an excellent record in this race and said: “He came in today with a lot of experience under his belt – he’s run twice over five, stepped up to six in the Coventry and up to seven today. He had the experience and we utilised that.

“Will was keen to go out there and just use his experience. You know what it’s like against some of those horses, they only had the one run, so it was a big step to change gears moving up to this level. He utilised his experience, but he’s not a bad horse himself.

“Take nothing away from what we’ve beaten, but he’s just a good, solid horse and I think he might make up into a Breeders’ Cup horse as he ticks a lot of boxes for the profile of horse that I like to take over there. Experience counts over there and he has plenty of that.

“I’m sure we will find another run before we go over to the Breeders’ Cup, although I haven’t really pinpointed one just yet.”

Follow us on Twitter racing365dotcom and like our Facebook page.

Latest