Oxted in line for Diamond Jubilee tilt at Royal Ascot

Graham Clark
June 8, 2020 3:15 pm

Teal speedster shone in Abernant Stakes at Newmarket.

Roger Teal is leaning towards making the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on Saturday week the next target for his progressive sprinter Oxted.

The Lambourn handler favours keeping his new stable star at six furlongs for his first venture into Group One company rather than dropping him back to the minimum trip for the King’s Stand Stakes earlier in the meeting.

Having signed off last season with victory in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster, the four-year-old made a winning return with an impressive victory in the Group Three Abernant Stakes at Newmarket on Friday.

Teal said: “I think the Diamond Jubilee will be his race unless that race has really woke him up at home.

“If we go to the King’s Stand Stakes you have got to take on Battaash and although I think I have a beast, he is a real beast.

“The way he finished off at Newmarket he will come on for the run and I think the six furlongs is the more sensible route to go.

“It is a stiffer six at Ascot, but he has won over seven so I don’t see that being a problem. We’ve not got to make a final decision yet, we just have to see how he is.”

A step up in trip at the Royal meeting appears to be on the cards for Kenzai Warrior, who lost his unbeaten record when paying the price for a slow start in the 2000 Guineas on Saturday.

Teal said: “He just missed the beat and was getting a bit over excited in the stalls and I don’t know if he anticipated the gate opening, but he just fly-leaped out and stumbled badly.

“Our game was over quickly and you can’t give away ground like that in a race of that quality.

“We wanted to go to the Derby, but with not having a race or finding out much on the day I’d say we will possibly go for one of the races at Royal Ascot as there are a few options.

“There is the St James’s Palace Stakes, but I think I will step him up in trip for either the Hampton Court or the King Edward VII Stakes, but I will speak to the owner first.”

Teal remains confident a repeat of what happened at the start in the Guineas will be one off for last year’s Horris Hill winner.

He added: “Hopefully he has got his antics out of the way. We put him in the stalls prior to going to Newmarket and he was as good as gold. It was just one of those things on the day.

“He was brilliant in the preliminaries, but when he got in the stalls he just got a bit excited.

“They seemed to take a long time loading Pinatubo up and he was in there a while and just got himself a bit over excited.

“He hasn’t run for a while and he has only run twice in his life, so he is lacking a bit of experience. It is a bit of a numb feeling, but we are over it now.”