impressed when strolling to an easy victory in the William Hill
Mile Stakes.
Roger Teal’s four-year-old finished second in the French 2000 Guineas last year and was making his seasonal debut in the Listed contest, but he looked far from rusty under Kieran Shoemark.
Success came with little strain for the Camelot colt, who took up the lead a furlong from home and was three and three-quarter lengths ahead of Checkandchallenge at the line.
Last year’s winner Charyn went on to dominate in the mile division and Teal, who has always held his charge in the highest regard, hopes to follow suit.
“He ran so well in the French Guineas last year and he was in the Derby, because he’s bred for further – we’d never had a runner in the Derby so let him take his chance,” said Teal.
“That took an awful lot out of him though, and given that we never got to run him on his favoured ground, he never managed to win despite running well.
“I said before the race if he bolted up we’d go straight to the Lockinge. It’s funny, Charyn won this last year and he never won at three either.
“He obviously loves it here because he was very impressive here as a two-year-old, but I think nice ground is the key to him.
“We’ve got some talking to do now because there’s the Group Two at Sandown he could go to (Bet365 Mile) but he could just go straight to Newbury – and it’s local!
“We’ll keep our feet on the floor but he was incredibly impressive there. It all went to plan, I told Kieran to settle him and it couldn’t have gone any better.”