Philosophical Varian grateful for opportunity amid King Of Steel speculation
‘We’ve been on a hell of a ride the last 12 months’.
Roger Varian described himself as “grateful of the opportunity” to have trained King Of Steel, after conceding he does not know if he will return to his yard when he recovers from the injury that has sidelined him for the summer. Under Varian’s guidance, the imposing colt finished second in the Derby and landed both the King Edward VII Stakes and the Qipco Champion Stakes last season, providing Amo Racing – Kia Joorabchian’s racing enterprise – with its biggest victories to date. The horse was being prepared by Varian for his four-year-old season when injury intervened and scuppered plans that had included the Brigadier Gerard, Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Coral-Eclipse.Varian was philosophical and expressed his gratitude for being sent the horse in the first place. “He has left the yard, but he is injured and will miss his summer targets, so there is no need for him to be with me all summer,” he said. When asked if he knew if King Of Steel would return to Carlburg Stables, Varian continued: “No, not as far as I know, but you also have to bear in mind I didn’t train him as a two-year-old and David Loughnane was the one on the sidelines watching him have all the fun last year. “His future is uncertain and he has to recover from the injury first and foremost and I think before we worry about too many human sides of the story we have to think of the horse and how disappointed the owner is and team Amo. He is a horse they were going to build their year around and the same for my team, we were hoping to build our summer around him.
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