Marvelman expected to compete for top honours when rain arrives

Connections of Marvelman are excited to return to seven furlongs later in the campaign after a fine run in defeat in Newcastle’s Chipchase Stakes.

Andrew Balding’s son of Invincible Spirit was a thoroughly consistent operator at three and was snapped up by the Yorkshire-based Bond Thoroughbred Limited team prior to running in Group One company in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on British Champions Day.

With a lack of rain limiting options since a second outing in the Bond yellow and black silks in Saudi Arabia in February, the four-year-old was dropping back to six furlongs on the all-weather at Gosforth Park, finding just Paborus too strong in the Group Three event.

However, that performance could prove just the right stepping stone to assignments back over his optimum trip later in the season, with an outing at York’s Ebor Festival, Doncaster’s Park Stakes which he won last season and a trip to France for the Prix de la Foret all possibilities.

Charlie Bond of the owners said: “He needs seven furlongs, but unfortunately there has been no races and he needs a bit of cut in the ground so we thought the all-weather would be ideal to start him back ahead of his autumn campaign back over seven furlongs.

“We’ll just wait now for the cut in the ground and the City of York Stakes, Foret and of course potentially the Doncaster race he won last year are all options, but it’s all going to be ground dependent and unfortunately since we’ve purchased him he’s not had the conditions to suit.”

He added: “He ran really well at Newcastle carrying a penalty and I think it might have been the penalty that actually got him beat.

“It was great to get him back out and it’s just really been down to weather conditions why we haven’t seen him and when he was meant to run in Ireland (in the Greenlands Stakes) he banged his head and couldn’t run.

“We’re looking forward to seeing him back over seven furlongs in his favoured conditions.”