Chris Gordon is purring at what he might have on his hands in the shape of smart youngster Bass Hunter, as he prepares to step him up to Listed level at Ascot on Friday.
The five-year-old – who cost €145,000 as a three-year-old – easily won a point-to-point at Ballyragget in Ireland earlier this year before making his rules and stable debut last month in a Newbury bumper.
And it could not have gone much better, with Bass Hunter mightily impressive, making all the running and pulling clear of the field to come home unchallenged, winning by eight lengths in the hands of Gordon’s son, Freddie.
Now Ascot and the King Edward VII Ascot Membership Open National Hunt Flat Race is on the radar, live on Sky Sports Racing.
Gordon said: “We’re off to the Listed race on Friday and he seems in good form. It was a nice start and we’re looking forward to it.
“At the end of the day I thought he was a very exciting horse at home. Literally about two days before he ran I said to the wife ‘I think he’s the best one we’ve had in 18 years of training’. But horses at home can be very different than on the track.
“He’s by Authorized and they can be a bit hot-headed, but he behaved beautifully at Newbury and won very nicely. The second horse has come out and won a maiden hurdle afterwards. It’s difficult when it’s a bumper where was very little form in the race.
“It looks like there were some nice horses with nice pedigrees and it’s a Newbury bumper. He couldn’t have done it more impressively on the day so for me he’s a big five-year-old and there’s no hurry with him, I just thought let’s go the bumper route with him this year… let’s go Listed at Ascot on Friday.
“We want the horse to do the talking so he can tell me that on Friday, whether he’s up for that type of thing. The horse is the only one who is going to tell us. I think we’ll know on Friday a couple of minutes after the race whether he is going to be ready for those big spring ones.
“He just seems in very good form. At the end of the day he’s a big horse, but he’s light framed and at Ascot it does dry out.
“I’m going down to Plumpton on good to soft. I’ve put entries in at Lingfield and it’s good. We’re in December now and at Ascot it’s now good to soft, good in places so it does frighten a lot of these big chasing types away.”