Passenger promises plenty in smooth Huxley Stakes return

Lightly-raced Sir Michael Stoute colt looks set for a big year.

Passenger began what could prove to be a big four-year-old season in the best possible fashion, with a smooth victory in the IRE-Incentive, It Pays To Buy Irish Huxley Stakes at Chester.

A eighth victory in the race for Sir Michael Stoute, he looks a top-notch prospect for connections.

Not blessed with the smoothest of journeys when dead-heating for third in the Dante last year, before disappointing in the Derby, for which he was supplemented, the Ulysses colt was only seen once after Epsom, when getting home by a short head in the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor.

In breaking the track record on the Roodee, he now looks booked for bigger and better things having beaten Israr by a length and a half to add Group Two honours to his CV.

Richard Kingscote was content to take a lead off Jim Crowley until the turned into the short straight, but once he asked his mount the response was immediate and the 7-4 scorer quickened impressively.

Paddy Power initially cut the winner to 14-1 for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, but were immediately forced to trim him into 8-1.

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