Stable-mate out to deny dream return for Leger hero

May 28 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

ST LEGER hero Lucarno will make his seasonal reappearance in tomorrow night’s Betfair Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown, but stable-mate Pipedreamer may be the one to deny him victory.

John Gosden’s Lucarno is a best-priced 10- with most firms to make his first run since his Classic success at Doncaster last September a winning one. But Cambridgeshire winner Pipedreamer, who was a close third on his reappearance to Phoeniz Tower in the Group Three Earl of Sefton Stakes, is the 7-2 market leader with Stan James and BetDirect.

Stan James head of public relations, Liverpool-born Charlie McCann, said: “We make Pipedreamer the 7-2 favourite and are keen to take on Lucarno with his 7lb penalty and running over a trip that could be on the sharp side for him this season.

“The four-year-old fillies Passage Of Time and Silver Pivotal and recent Godolphin acquisition Happy Boy are others to consider in what looks an excellent renewal.”

The Gerard Butler-trained Silver Pivotal ran well to finish second from a bad draw in the Lingfield Winter Derby and along with Dansant, will be Butler’s first high-profile runner since moving to Newmarket from Oxfordshire.

Butler said: “Newmarket is not a foreign country and everything is going well so far.

“I’ve been quite happy with Silver Pivotal in the last two weeks.

“It looks a strong race but a lot of them, including us, will have an eye on races at Royal Ascot.

“She has lots of entries including the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, the Hardwicke and the Pretty Polly in Ireland the weekend after. I don’t know what went wrong with Dansant in Dubai (when last in the Sheema Classic) but he’s been working quite nicely and seems to be enjoying Newmarket Heath.”

This evening at Beverley the Listed sprint, the Hilary Needler Trophy, looks as competitive as ever.

An ever informative juvenile fillies’s sprint, it has been won in the past by subsequent Classic star the Mark Johnston-trained Attraction.

Several of the 14 runners will have eyes on Royal Ascot and the well-regarded Haigh Hall, a winner of her only start at Thirsk, bids to give Tim Easterby his fifth win in the race in the past decade.

The Yorkshire trainer has already mentioned the Queen Mary Stakes – a race he won with Hillary Needler winner Flanders in 1998 – as a possible next step for the Kyllachy filly.

In opposition Paul Cole is hoping the hat-trick seeking Percolator can run a big race from the plum draw in 14 stall.

Cole said: “She’s always gone very well at home and she just got stuck in the mud a bit on her debut at Warwick.

“She then ran a bit green at Lingfield but she came good at Longchamp last time.

“She goes to Beverley tomorrow and she might have a lower rating on her English form but she was quite impressive in France and she has always gone very well.

“She has got a very good draw for her style of racing so we can hope for the best and I think she’ll put up a big show.”

TODAY’S NAP: Haigh Hall (7.35pm Beverley).