Toormore out of Racing Post Trophy
Kingston Hill (pictured above) is the new favourite for the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.
Following Tuesdays preview, Toormore has been pulled due to the soft conditions at Doncaster. He had been ante-post favourite for Saturday’s Group 1 Racing Post Trophy and is as short as 7/1 for next year’s Qipco 2,000 Guineas.
Trained by Richard Hannon and owned by Middleham Park Racing, racing manager Tim Palin confirmed the colt will be put away for the rest of the year.
“It’s good to soft, it’s not going to get any quicker, it’ll probably get slower and Toormore doesn’t need that at this stage of his life,” Palin said.
Trainer Richard Hannon speaking on his website, said that Toormore will have a prep before the Guineas next season.
Middleham Park Racing will still field an unbeaten colt in the race, Chief Barker, and Palin added: “The rain that has come this week will suit him and it’s likely Richard Hughes will switch to him.”
A final field of 11 was declared for the race, with Red Rocks Point the other absentee.
Autumn Stakes winner Kingston Hill is now favourite at 3-1 with Ladbrokes.
However, there is a difference of opinion among the firms, with Betfred making Kingston Hill, Pinzolo and Century 7-2 co-favourites.
Roger Varian-trained Kingston Hill, a son of successful first-season sire Mastercraftsman, is unbeaten in two starts and was supplemented for the last domestic Group One of the season on Monday.
If the Autumn Stakes winner is as good as he looked at Newmarket, recouping the £17,500 entry fee should be the minimum he achieves on Saturday.
“We had liked him for a while,” Varian said yesterday, recalling the colt’s progress through the summer. “He is a big, strapping, good-looking colt with a good action and when we took him to Newbury for his maiden we expected him to run well.
It was quite testing, but he won despite the ground and being green. “It was a big ask for a once-raced maiden winner to step up to a Group Three, but we did plenty with him in between and I loved the way he did it.
He stuck his chest out through a not very big gap, went away and won pricking his ears. He looked like he would come on again, but the fact that four horses have been supplemented tells you what the trainers of those horses think.
“You don’t supplement them if you don’t think you can finish in the first three so it says a lot about the race. He’s very laid back and has what I call sleepy speed. I envisage him being a mile and a quarter horse next year but wouldn’t be worried starting him off over a mile.”
Aidan O’Brien, who has won the race for the last two years with Camelot and Kingsbarns, has three runners with Buonarrotti, Century and Johann Strauss.
Altruistic and Dolce N Karama will also make the journey from Ireland, with Pinzolo, Snow Sky, Somewhat and The Grey Gatsby completing the field.
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