Roger Varian ponders big-race options with a team firing on all cylinders

Trainer tells Andy Stephens about his impressive start to the season and gives the latest news on his Classic-placed stars Qabala and San Donato.

Roger Varian provides proof that the early bird sometimes catches the worm.

His horses at Carlburg Stables in Newmarket, much like Clive Brittain before him, can be strutting their stuff on the gallops at 5.30am but they have been anything but dozy in the afternoons.

Varian has never had a start to the season like this one. He’s already easily accrued more prize money (about £670,000) in April and May than ever before and is fourth in the trainers’ championship, with an impressive strike-rate of 23 per cent.

Nuasha kept up his momentum by landing the Musidora at York on Wednesday, while Qabala, Zabeel Prince and Sharja Bridge have also struck in pattern company this term. UAE Jewel has stamped himself as an exciting performer in winning both his starts, while such as Cape Byron and UAE Prince have hit the deck running in valuable handicaps.

In addition, Qabala finished a fine third in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas and San Dontao ran a screamer to occupy the same position behind Persian King on his return in the French 2000 Guineas last Sunday. The pair were both beaten about a length.

“The horses are in great form. They are healthy, training well and the team are doing a great job behind the scenes,” Varian told racingtv.com. “We feel well organised, as much as you can be with horses, and some of them are hitting their targets.

“I think across board - older horses, three-year-olds and two-year-olds starting to push through - we’ve got a strong team of horses which hopefully makes for an exciting summer ahead.”

Of course, when you have a squad of more than 170 horses not all his owners can be successful and Varian is conscious that some will have had little to cheer during his purple patch.

“You don’t always enjoy it [the success] because you are at work and as many things are going right, there are things going wrong,” he said. “As good a time as you are having for some owners, you are not quite producing the goods for others. It’s an up and down scenario on a daily basis.

“We are very appreciative that we’ve got a strong team of horses and a strong group of owners supporting us. We are very lucky to do what we do – not just me as trainer but the people working for me. We are generally following a passion.”

Today (Saturday), he has another seven runners divided between Newmarket and Newbury, with Sharja Bridge a live contender for the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes.

The lightly raced five-year-old found Beat The Bank half a length too strong in the bet365 Mile at Sandown last time but Varian believes his horse was not seen to maximum advantage.

“He’s in great condition and I think a straight mile in a truly-run race on a flat track will bring out the best in him,” he said. “He will have his optimum conditions.

“He’s getting better with age and has every right to be in the field. He’s going to need everything to go right for him to win a Lockinge but I can see him holding every chance going into the final quarter and then let’s see what happens.”

Varian, 40, has had six previous Group One winners in Britain – Kingston Hill, Belardo and Postponed winning two each. He has had eight more on foreign shores, and his present team offer hope of more glory at the highest level both home and away, whatever happens at Newbury this afternoon.

The delicate part for the trainer is selecting the right races, with Nuasha, Qabala and San Donato all presenting puzzles.

“Qabala has come out of the Guineas in great form,” he said. “We would not rule out looking at the Irish Guineas but she needs supplementing, which makes it a bit more complicated. I’m not sure I’d want to supplement her if it looked like it might rain every day at the Curragh.

“Come Monday morning we’d have to take a view. If the weather is set fair and we were happy with her condition, then I’d have to discuss it with the owners as to whether they would supplement her.

“That’s one option, the other is locking away her away and waiting for the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, which was probably my first thought following the English Guineas. Regardless of what we do, we are delighted with the way she’s come out of her race at Newmarket and hopefully her best days are still ahead.”

Qabala stayed on strongly in the Guineas, as she had done when previously landing the Nell Gwyn. But for the time being Varian is happy to keep her over a mile.

“I wouldn’t rule out running her over further at some stage, but I don’t necessarily look at her and think ‘ten furlongs’,” he said. “I think she is probably a very good miler who has had only three starts and is learning on the job a little bit.

“If you put a gun to my head, I’d say she was a miler but, she has been a little bit behind the bridle mid-race in the Nell Gwyn and Guineas and finished very strong. So who knows, she might well stay ten.”

San Donato had won his final three races as a two-year-old over six furlongs but Varian was always hopeful a mile would be within compass. He belied odds of 25-1 at ParisLongchamp last weekend to also make the frame in a Classic.

“It was a great performance on his seasonal debut against horses who’d had a run,” Varian said. “I thought he was professional. He settled, got the trip well and quickened well.

“As with Qabala, we were delighted but to go so close, but not to win either race was a shame. He’s clearly up to that league and hopefully we can place him to win at the top level.”

San Donato is now bound for Royal Ascot, where he will have the Jersey Stakes and St James’s Palace Stakes as options. His performance in France showed he was far more than a six-furlong horse.

“If I stood him up in front of you, as a physical specimen, he does not look a sprinter,” Varian said. “He’s not big, but he’s rangy and being by Lope De Vega gave us hope he’d get the mile, for all he is very quick and impressive in his homework.

“He’s a fast horse who can get a mile, as he proved last Sunday, and hopefully he can only get better as that was his first run of the year. I think the form is pretty strong – the winner is obviously a bit of a star, but I’d like to take on the second again.”

Fighting talk from a trainer throwing plenty of punches. He might well land another big one before very long.