Groom shoots for Listed glory
Saturday 14 March 2015
Tony Carroll believes the progressive Boom The Groom is still on the upgrade as he faces his stiffest task to date in the Listed Unibet Hever Sprint Stakes at Lingfield today.
Now a four-year-old, he has been on the go since October but has made rapid strides and was last seen winning a decent handicap at the Surrey venue last month.
Boom The Groom has a good draw in stall one this time but faces a different calibre of opponent now.
“I think he’s still improving,” said Carroll, who has enjoyed success in Dubai recently with Caspian Prince.
“He enjoys it at Lingfield very much and he has a good draw.The boy (William Carson) gets on very well with him and he’s a very nice horse.
“I can’t see any reason why he won’t be as good on the turf in the summer, although he has been on the go a while, and he could be another one for Dubai, we’ll see.”
Charlie Appleby has enjoyed a great time of things with his all-weather representatives and he fields another progressive runner in Pretend.
Twice a winner in December, he disappointed at Chelmsford but won for Ryan Moore a week ago, looking a cut above his rivals.
“We started Pretend off over a mile but he has so much natural speed and we seem to have found the key to him by dropping back to sprinting,” said Appleby.
“He was disappointing at Chelmsford City (January 28), which could have been the track riding a little slow or he could have been a little lethargic with the hood on. We took the hood off last time out and I thought that it was quite an impressive performance.
“He heads to Lingfield Park in good form and the step down to five furlongs will hopefully give us a feel for the Good Friday race.”
Charlie Hills is confident of a bold show from the Frankie Dettori-ridden B Fifty Two despite it being his first run for 140 days.
Dettori will likely still be on a high after Dodging Bullets, a horse he bred, won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham on Wednesday.
“I’ve been very pleased with his work in the lead up to the race,” said Hills.
“He’s got a pretty decent draw in five as he’s a very fast horse, I was a bit worried we were going to be drawn out of it.
“The track should suit because he showed when he won at Chester that he likes going left-handed. Dungannon was a fair way behind him that day and we meet him on much better terms.
“He loves just blasting out and going as hard as he can and he could make it difficult for the others, I’m happy going there.
“Were he to win, then he would obviously go for the Sprint Final as this is a qualifier.”
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