Ancient Wisdom impresses with clear-cut Autumn success

Ashley Iveson
October 14, 2023 1:19 pm

Appleby runner returns to winning form at Newmarket.

Ancient Wisdom made light work of the Emirates Autumn Stakes for William Buick and Charlie Appleby.

The bay was the 2-1 joint favourite for the one-mile Group Three and was ridden patiently on soft ground that he seemed to relish.

Coming out of the dip on the Rowley Mile he began to gather pace and was easily able to pull away from his rivals to secure a three-and-three-quarter-length victory over Chief Little Rock.

Ancient Wisdom had been off the track since finishing third to subsequent Group One scorer Rosallion in July and Appleby, who was winning the race for the fourth successive year, was delighted to see the Dubawi colt leave that run well behind him.

Ancient Wisdom could be a Derby contender (Nigel French/PA)

He said: “We were disappointed we were beaten at Ascot, but the form worked out so well you couldn’t really be disappointed in it.

“I’ve held my hands up – I probably mismanaged him by running him here at Newmarket on his second start. He broke his maiden at Haydock and I thought I’d take him to Newmarket thinking I’d get a bit more experience and I was probably just forcing him a bit too much.

“After Ascot we said we’d give him a nice break and come here for either this or the Zetland, thinking he’ll be a nice middle-distance type for next year.”

On whether he views Ancient Wisdom as a Derby contender, the trainer added: “There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge, but I think a mile and a quarter will be well within his compass and I personally feel he’ll appreciate going a mile and a half.

“It’s nice to see some of these two-year-olds coming to the fore. You can go through the season wondering where the next star or nice horse is going to come from, hopefully over the last 24 hours we’ve started to unearth a couple.

“He’s a Dubawi and with those middle-distance type Dubawis, I personally think you can’t force them too much in the early part of their three-year-old career.

“Something like at Dante (at York) might be a target for him, whether we take in a race before a Dante we’ll just see where we are in the spring.”

Betfair cut Ancient Wisdom to 12-1 from 33s for next year’s Derby.