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| Sumita Pawar |
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Last year's winner of the Derby, Desert Crown, is still on track for an exciting showdown with Paddington and Mostahdaf in the upcoming Juddmonte International. Desert Crown showed good form in his latest gallop, which took place recently.
Ryan Moore, who will be riding Aidan O'Brien's Paddington in the race at Knavesmire, put the 4YO Desert Crown through his paces during a training session on Wednesday morning.
Since his victory at Epsom, Desert Crown has only been seen in action once. Unfortunately, he lost his unbeaten record by finishing second to Hukum in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes back in May.
Desert Crown was then forced to withdraw from the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes, where he was supposed to face his familiar rival Hukum. Instead, Hukum emerged victorious in the Ascot showpiece.
“Desert Crown worked this morning, he worked nicely and everybody was happy with him,” said Bruce Raymond, racing manager to owner Saeed Suhail.
“He’s not a great worker, as has been stated before, but everyone was very happy with him this morning and everything went as well as expected.”
Buick's Absence Challenges Desert Crown
Initially, William Buick was announced as Desert Crown's jockey for the King George, but he was unable to ride due to unforeseen circumstances. However, it is anticipated that Buick will be back in the saddle for the upcoming race.
“William didn’t ride him. Ryan Moore rode him this morning. He’s ridden him a lot of times at home and Sir Michael just sometimes likes a different opinion,” Raymond went on.
“It’s really shaping up into a great race. One thing I can definitely tell you is this horse needed it badly at Sandown, it wasn’t said at the time but Michael was quite surprised how much he was blowing afterwards.
“He had worked on the grass but nowhere near as much as we would have liked as it kept on pouring down.
“Having spoken to Richard Hills (assistant racing manager for Shadwell, owners of Hukum), their horse had been working really, really well for a long time, so we met a very fit horse that day and he’s gone on to prove again he is a very good horse as he’s one of the favourites for the Arc.
“We’re looking forward to next week. Where else could you take a horse like that? He’s got to go somewhere and when you are in his class, there are only certain races you can run in.”