William Haggas' leading middle distance horse Addeybb is close to a return to the track with his narrow defeat in the British Champion Stakes something he will be looking to put right this term.
The six year old had a break after his second at Ascot last October and then went over to Australia for the first time in his career and at the back end of March became a black type winner for the first time when taking the Ranvet Stakes on his first start down under.
The big target whilst Addeybb was over there was to race in the Group One Queen Elizabeth Stakes and on April 11th, with the rain bringing his favoured soft ground, he went on to take the contest with ease.
Since coming back over to the UK, he made his seasonal debut in the Group One Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot and he finished a decent second to the stand alone winner Lord North.
✅Addeybb
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✅Young Rascal
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Now having had a short break his new target is the British Champions Stakes and if going as well as he did in the event last term, it looks hard to rule him out of going close once more.
(Credit ATR) “He needs a run before Champions Day, so we’ve just got to find a slot,” said Haggas.
“He’s fine, he’s had a break after Ascot and he’s in good shape actually – really good.
“He would have liked the (soft) ground at the minute, but the trouble is when you’re coming back from a break you don’t want it bottomless.
“He worked on Friday and he’s on his way back, but he’s not prepared for now because normally it’s not like this – sadly you can’t just turn them on and off when coming back from a break.
“You can’t rush it, but we’re on schedule for whatever we want. Hopefully he’ll get his ground.”