AMERICAN trainer Kenny McPeek is hoping Noble’s Promise can help him realise a six-year dream with victory in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot on Tuesday.
The Kentucky trainer saddled Hard Buck to finish second to Doyen in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2004, before taking a year out of racing to travel the world and explore the sport around the globe.
When he returned to the training ranks he converted a Lexington Stud farm into a 21st century training establishment.
From there he has brought over Noble’s Promise to take on the Guineas winners Makfi and Canford Cliffs and Aidan O’Brien’s Steinbeck.
Kieren Fallon has been working with the colt, who was fifth in the rain-soaked Kentucky Derby and a close third in the Breeders’ Cup juvenile last year. Noble’s Promise is a 16-1 chance with most firms behind Coral’s current 13-8 favourite Canford Cliffs.
McPeek said: “There is no Group One race in North America over a mile for him and the timing of Royal Ascot is right for us.
“We had a stab at the Kentucky Derby and he missed a breeze going into the Breeders’ Cup last year and but for that he might have been champion two-year-old.
“The mile is his ideal distance and I just hope it is good, fast ground as he has shipped perfect.
“He is as good a miler as any three-year-old in America and it is important for an international race to have American challengers.”
The 10,000 yearling will give his 24-strong blue collar owners’ syndicate a trip of a lifetime and McPeek added: “In America you can only train left-handed between 6am and 10am so I have built my own training ground and can train any way I like. I have a lot more options.
“Noble’s Promise has been working on my course for the last four weeks and there have been no problems.
“He worked from the 10-furlong to the five-furlong marker on the July course as that represents a similar test to Ascot. He finished on his left lead up the hill with no problems. Hard Buck was a great experience.
“I met Nick Cheyne (former clerk of the course) in Dubai and stopped off on the way home to look at Epsom and Ascot to get a vision of the type of horse I needed.
“It was taken me six years to get back and I did want to be back sooner.”
McPeek will also run Tiz My Time in the Albany Stakes and Casper’s Touch in the Chesham.
TODAY’S NAP: The Last Alzao (3.25pm York).
