Room Service will attempt to deliver a tasty early-season treat to Kevin Ryan when he lines up in the BetMGM Burradon Stakes at Newcastle.
A winner of a valuable sales race at Doncaster when last seen, connections cannot help but be buoyed by the way that form has been franked by the horses in behind, with the second, fourth and fifth all scoring since and the third, Aidan O’Brien’s Johannes Brahms, already Group Two placed.
Ryan sees this Listed event as the perfect place to test out the Kodi Bear colt’s capabilities over a mile and, with him holding an entry for the Irish 2,000 Guineas, it will give a good gauge as to whether Classic dreams can begin.
“It’s a good starting point for him and he’s in good form,” said the North Yorkshire-based trainer.
“Obviously the all-weather is an unknown but he’s ready to run. The way the ground is at the moment, he likes soft ground, but I don’t really like starting them off on really deep ground, so I just thought we would have a look at Newcastle and see how he goes on that surface.
“He’s matured the way you would like to see him mature from two to three and we’re very happy with him. We’ll learn an awful lot more on Friday.”
Room Service is just 1lb below John and Thady Gosden’s Orne on official ratings, but the Horris Hill winner has to concede a 5lb penalty to his big-race rival due to landing that rearranged Group Two last autumn.
The Al Shaqab-owned Classic entrant has match fitness on his side having appeared both in Doha and when going down valiantly in Lingfield’s Spring Cup recently – and his team are hopeful his class can see him involved in the finish.
“He’s come out of his race at Lingfield really well and he ran really well from a wide draw there,” said Al Shaqab racing manager Alison Begley.
“He has to carry a penalty, but we think he has a good chance and we think the step up to a mile will help him. He ran well over a mile in Qatar, so we think returning to that distance will help and hopefully he will run well.
“He’s top rated in the race and Kevin Ryan’s is 1lb below him with us giving him 5lb because of the penalty, but having said that, Orne is a horse who is improving and he’s done little wrong in his career so far and we hope he will run a big race.”
A couple of places behind Orne at Lingfield earlier this month was Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Habrdi, who prior to that fifth-place finish had won three on the spin for the Newmarket handler.
He now returns to the mile trip he was successful over at Chelmsford on his penultimate start, with his trainer confident the colt will be sharper for his Spring Cup outing.
“He needed the run in the Spring Cup, as we always had half an eye on this race,” said Chapple-Hyam.
“He had a wide draw and was almost playing catch-up the whole time. He has come forward since then and moving back up to a mile should suit him. He is in a good spot at the moment.”
Charlie Appleby’s Dubawi gelding Silent Age has impressed in two appearances on the all-weather and now takes a step up in grade, while similar sentiments apply to Karl Burke’s Cuban Tiger, who bumped into a well-regarded stablemate of the Godolphin entrant at Kempton last month.
Burke said: “I could not be happier with him. He ran really well at Kempton, proving he gets the mile well, and this race looked the obvious next step.”
There has never been an Irish winner of this contest and Adrian Murray will try to change that when he saddles the raiding Manhattan Dreamer, who opened her account when stepping up to seven furlongs at Dundalk last time.
Andrew Balding’s Sayedaty Sadaty, Yokohama (John Butler) and David Menuisier’s Chelmsford scorer Louis Quatorze complete the field at Gosforth Park.