Kind Of Blue sets up Ascot repeat with confidence-boosting success

Kind Of Blue became the latest member of the Wathnan team to book his ticket to Qatar Racing British Champions Day when making a welcome return to the winner’s enclosure at Kempton on Wednesday night.

James Fanshawe’s five-year-old was a winner in his first outing for the Emir of Qatar’s racing entity on Champions Day in 2024 and while he has performed with credit in hot events since, was ending a near two-year drought when striking under the Sunbury floodlights in what was a competitive conditions event.

He will now run in the British Champions Sprint Stakes on Ascot’s end-of-season spectacular for the third year running, with confidence hopefully restored.

“We were delighted with him at Kempton,” said Wathnan racing adviser Richard Brown.

“We haven’t given him an easy time and he’s had to dance every dance and run in all the big races and he’s put up some very consistent performances.

“We just wanted to give him a little confidence-booster and then when we saw the final field it was a long-way from a ‘gimme’, so I thought it was a very good performance.

“James (Doyle) said he just did enough and he was just pulling up in front and hopefully that has done the job with a view of going to Champions Day.

“He likes Ascot and the hustle and bustle of a big field and he should get that there.”

Kind Of Blue’s resurgence comes less than a week after ‘Wathnan original’ Gregory secured his own passage to Ascot’s bumper October 17 card with a bloodless victory in the Rose Bowl Stakes at Newmarket.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, he was Wathnan’s first ever winner at the Royal meeting when landing the Queen’s Vase in 2023 and having returned from a prolonged period of setbacks to win both outings this term, is set for the British Champions Long Distance Cup

“He’s one of our old boys and Wathnan’s first thoroughbred winner in Europe and it was a very good performance in the Rose Bowl,” continued Brown.

“He’s had lots of niggly issues and a lot of people have put a lot of hard work into him to get him back and I thought he was back with a bang there.

“He seems to have come out of it well and the plan is to go to Champions Day to run in the Long Distance Cup as long as it is not too soft.”