Charlie Appleby wants to give Ancient Wisdom's Dante Stakes return some time to settle before he decides whether to race alongside stablemate Arabian Crown in the Epsom Betfred Derby.
After a strong showing on his three-year-old debut in the Sandown Classic Trial in April, Arabian Crown soared to the top of the ante-post lists for the prestigious Classic. He is currently the best-priced 4-1 second-favourite, trailing just Aidan O'Brien's 11-4 market leader City Of Troy.
Ancient Wisdom was a 7-4 favourite to make his Derby debut on the Knavesmire after being off the track since winning the Group One Futurity Trophy at Doncaster in October. Although he was no match for the William Haggas-trained Economics, Appleby was happy with his performance in placing second and is optimistic that major improvement will be forthcoming.
“The winner’s won well and it’s something I’ve been saying all year really, with these three-year-olds it’s going to be unexposed two-year-olds that come to the fore,” said the Moulton Paddocks handler. “The more we see of some of these three-year-olds with top-level form (from the last season), the more it’s suddenly becoming a bit more exposed. Full credit to the winner. From our point of view, Will (Buick, jockey) was happy and most importantly he’s handled the ground. As we said before, we were confident he’d handle it, it’s just when you get extreme conditions he excels. Trip-wise he’s crying out to step up in trip and he’ll definitely come forward for the run as he’s having a good heave for one of ours.”
After losing, Ancient Wisdom was forced to concede a 20-1 lead to Epsom. However, Appleby did not rule out launching a double attack, saying, “Derby-wise I think we’ll just let it all settle down. I know it’s only two and a bit weeks to Epsom and people want us to make a call sooner, but I think it depends how much he progresses from it really. A mile and a half is definitely going to be his trip. Will said he wouldn’t be worried about Epsom or the ground, it’s just whether he wants a sterner test because as we all know you can be a mile-and-a-quarter horse round there and get the mile and a half because you’ve got to be able to travel. This horse will come on a lot and he’s allowed himself more time in the spring than Arabian Crown has. Arabian Crown came early and came in his coat, whereas this horse is still not there in his coat now. Arabian Crown looked more like a staying type than this horse we felt on all evidence we’ve seen and we’ll have to see how much this horse jumps forward.”
When asked whether he felt Buick would face a difficult choice if he does run both horses in the Derby, Appleby said: “I think at the moment Will would have a job to get off Arabian Crown really, but if this horse comes out and does a decent piece of work it might be a different ball game.”