Nothing signals the arrival of spring for a Flat racing fan quite like the sight of the winter favourite for the 2,000 Guineas stepping back on to a racecourse, and Native Trail did everything his supporters could have hoped for – and enough to take another cut in the Classic betting – in a three-and-a-half-length win in the Craven Stakes.
Charlie Appleby’s colt was unbeaten in four starts last season. While he has not grown significantly taller over the winter, he was such a strapping two-year-old that there was no real need. What matters is that Native Trail’s engine, retains all its power, for all that it takes him a few strides to work his way through the gears, and the win on Wednesday was similar to his victory in the Dewhurst Stakes last autumn. A slight flat spot around two furlongs out was followed by a withering gallop to the line, with the 1-4 favourite increasing his advantage with every stride once he reached the rising ground.
“I was always happy, even when he came under the pump,” Appleby said. “Everybody in the stands thought we were under pressure but we know this horse. That’s what we saw in the National Stakes [at the Curragh] as well, under the pump, give him a smack, he picks up.
“What I love about him is that he does it all the right way round. He’s not a free traveller or doing too much, so you think: what’s he going to find? When he hits that rising ground, he’s going to keep finding all the way to the line.”
Native Trail was briefly available at 2-1 and then 7-4 for the 2,000 Guineas after the race, but he soon settled at 6-4 for the Classic, with his stable companion Coroebus next in the betting at 7-2 and Aidan O’Brien’s Luxembourg, the Vertem Futurity winner, at about 9-2.
Appleby suggested last October, after Coroebus’s win in the Autumn Stakes, that the bookies might have his horses the wrong way round in the Classic betting. Coroebus pleased the trainer in a pre-racing gallop on the Rowley Mile on Wednesday morning and, while Native Trail is now certain to start favourite for the Guineas, Appleby still feels Coroebus is well worth his chance in the Classic.
Ripon 1.00 Star Of Lady M, 1.40 Oasis Irlandes, 2.15 Follow Your Heart (nap), 2.50 Wots The Wifi Code, 3.25 Galileo Glass (nb), 4.00 Trojan Horse, 4.35 Wizard D’Amour.
Newmarket 1.15 Wodeton, 1.50 Tajalla, 2.25 Anthem National, 3.00 Via Serendipity, 3.35 Sonny Liston, 4.10 Ibiza Rocks, 4.45 Twilight Calls.
Cheltenham 1.30 Theatre Glory, 2.05 Little River Bay, 2.40 Kissesforkatie, 3.15 Jubilympics, 3.50 Addosh, 4.25 The Glancing Queen, 5.00 I Am Gonna Be.
Bath 4.20 Level Up, 4.55 Whistle And Flute, 5.30 Illustrating, 6.00 Covert Mission, 6.30 Silverdale, 7.00 Tibbie Dunbar, 7.30 Princess T.
Exeter 4.40 Runwiththetide, 5.10 Writteninthesand, 5.40 Kolisi, 6.10 Wicked West, 6.40 Blended Stealth, 7.10 Knockmoylan, 7.40 Knockanore.
“I was very pleased with how Coroebus worked this morning and he’s going to come forward again for that for sure,” Appleby said. “It’ll be hard call, but William [Buick] can’t get off Native Trail. He has been tightened up as favourite for the Guineas, but I’m sure James [Doyle] is happy to jump on Coroebus.”
Appleby, Britain’s champion trainer for the first time last year, went on to complete a treble on the card which included New London’s impressive success in a 10-furlong novice event. “He’ll go into a Derby trial now,” he said. “I didn’t want to dive straight into one as on home evidence, he’s still a big baby. We’ll probably send him to Lingfield [on 7 May].”
