Bullish Burke ready to go again

KARL BURKE plays his first cards in what could be a momentous Flat season for his Middleham stable when well-backed Liberty Lane runs in this afternoon’s Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster. Burke’s Classic hopes are pinned around his Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Fallen Angel, who is 4-1 second favourite for the 1,000 Guineas. The trainer recently made a welcome return to the racecourse after being treated for cancer last summer and he will be at Doncaster this afternoon to see his runners. Burke said: ‘I was around at home last season but I just didn’t go racing once I had the operation in July. I went to a couple of the early yearling sales and then started chemotherapy in September. After that I did what I could around the yard and the office. ‘It has been back to normal in the last couple of months. The chemotherapy finished in December. In a lot of ways that was worse than the operation, it knocks the hell out of you. ‘I am checked every three months now for the first year and then if everything is good they extend the checks to six months but it is a case of no news is good news.’ This time last year Burke was hoping Liberty Lane might develop into a French Derby contender and he ran in York’s Dante Stakes finishing in seventh place.

Burke, who has 139 horses in his Spigot Lodge yard, said: ‘We ran him in the Dante Stakes and he didn’t run badly, he was just too keen. He is a very forward-going horse who has been gelded over the winter and that should help him. ‘A mile is his minimum trip but he loves soft ground and you will need to stay well. I am going there hopeful but I am not overconfident.’ Burke, who runs Holloway Boy in the Doncaster Mile and Marshman in the Cammidge Trophy, said Fallen Angel has wintered well ahead of her Classic challenge. He added: ‘She will go for a racecourse gallop at Newmarket’s Craven Meeting and then straight to the 1,000 Guineas.’