Andesite's winning start in the Frank Whittle Partnership ebfstallions.com Novice Stakes at York may have won him a spot on Karl Burke's Royal Ascot team.
The stable's 2022 Queen Mary heroine's half-brother Dramatised, the 7-2 opportunity under Danny Tudhope showed a great deal of perseverance in addition to his obvious talent to deprive Yah Mo Be There by a narrow margin.
In addition to being a noteworthy winner in and of himself, Andesite is a first-time winner for Pinatubo, the two-year-old champion.
Burke said: “If I’m honest I was quite surprised he battled back because he hasn’t been off the bridle at home so that’s the first time and I thought we were beaten, so fair play to him. He’s a lovely horse, but I heard Richard Fahey say the other day that a lot of good horses do things easy at home and then first time out they often don’t know what to do and Newmarket horses have often been on the grass a lot more, especially with the wet winter. I’ll speak to Steve (Parkin, owner) about Royal Ascot, but he’s certainly worthy of going there.”