Grade One aspirations for Imperial Merlin

Although enjoying the summer of his dreams on the Flat thanks to the all-conquering sprinter Highfield Princess, John Quinn may have found the horse who could one day return him to the winner’s enclosure on the big jumping days in the form of the exciting Imperial Merlin.

It has been some time since Character Building was a standing dish in the top staying handicaps and Countrywide Flame was landing blows in the 2012 Fighting Fifth before placing in the Champion Hurdle a few months later for the Malton handler.

But together with Imperial Racing – whose founder Ian Robinson tasted Cheltenham Gold Cup glory with Imperial Commander almost 13 years ago – they appear to have unearthed a rough diamond that has the potential to be polished into the north’s next Grade One standard bearer.

The son of Kalanisi has quietly gone about his business with the minimum of fuss since suffering a two-length defeat at Wetherby on debut.

He quickly corrected the record by winning a Sedgefield bumper by nine lengths the following month, while the margin of victory has only got greater since returning over hurdles this season winning a pair of novice contests by a combined 31 lengths.

A chaser of the future, there is still plenty for Imperial Merlin to learn, with Robinson believing the gelding is “well above average” as he assesses the five-year-old’s key characteristics.

He said: “He’s a lovely horse and a half-brother to Secret Investor so he will jump fences in time.

“The problem is he is really green and I think you’ve seen when he comes to the last hurdle, at Catterick he took off and he was still green and at Newcastle he read the advertising boards and was doing anything but concentrate on going forward.

“He has a very easy way of going, he’s almost asleep when he races which is perfect and he keeps more than enough for himself.

“He wouldn’t over-exert himself at home either, he very much just does enough, so how much he is capable of doing is very much unknown at the moment.

“Unfortunately the horse who should have challenged at Newcastle ran through the rails and from then on everything was a formality, which didn’t really help him because he was there for experience and there was no opposition from a long way out. He just needs as much experience we can get into him.”

And experience seems to be the optimum word as connections plot a slow and steady path through the season, keen to keep him close to home for the time being, before contemplating testing the horse’s mettle in some hot races in the spring – providing he keeps ticking the right boxes.

“I think the plan is to just keep him north for the next couple of runs and then decide what we would like to do in the spring – but there is no doubt he is well above average, he’s a very nice horse,” continued Robinson.

“I don’t think he’ll really want deep ground so we might try to get him out between Christmas and New Year and that means when the deep ground comes in January and February we’re not forced to race him.

“I have the belief they are all handicappers until they prove otherwise. Now I think he could well prove otherwise and he is probably Graded class.

“It really depends when the penny drops because really the penny hasn’t dropped. He’s still very green, very naïve and still needs to learn how to race to be honest – what he’s doing so far he’s doing on raw ability.

“So in the back of my mind it would be a good handicap off his first mark or the one race I did have in mind was the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree.

“If you look at that race historically the Irish don’t come as they tend to head to Punchestown so it does have an easier look to it than some of the others.

“But that’s something myself and John haven’t really discussed yet and is something for further down the line – we’ll just take it one step at a time.”