Bucanero Fuerte won the Goffs Lacken Stakes at Naas, easily defeating all challengers to begin his career with a bang.
The previous season, Adrian Murray's juvenile Wootton Bassett horse demonstrated his exceptional abilities by taking up the Group One Phoenix Stakes and the Group Two Railway Stakes at the Curragh, in addition to being third in the Coventry at Royal Ascot.
On his last start of 2023 in the National Stakes in September, he was soundly defeated by Henry Longfellow, yet, he demonstrated that he still possesses a great deal of talent by leading the field when he made a strong recovery.
Returning to a Group Three distance of six furlongs, the 2-1 favourite Bucanero Fuerte led the way from the start under David Egan's guidance. With the support of the rails in the grandstand, he held firm deep into the last six furlongs to hold off the late charge of the 5-4 favourite Givemethebeatboys by a head.
Coral lowered Paddy Power's 8-1 odds on the winner of the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot the next month to 6-1 from the same price.
Robson Aguiar, Murray’s assistant, said: “He’s a nice horse and is going to improve a lot because we were not hard on him and he will get fit from the race. He will go over six furlongs at Ascot. He has great speed and he stays well, so that is the plan for him now.”