‘He always turns up with his A game, he’s a total professional’

THE eyes of the sporting world are upon us, and racing needs a superstar like never before.

No pressure, Pinatubo.

Not that the bay colt, red-hot favourite for the first Classic of 2020, the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas over Newmarket’s Rowley Mile, has bowed under a weight of expectation before.

There was little in the way of hype early on. Pinatubo’s lazy manner during the mornings persuaded his trainer Charlie Appleby to seek the low-hanging fruit at Wolverhampton at the start of his two-year-old career.

“We went to Wolverhampton for that reason,” admits Appleby. “If we thought he was going to to be the horse he is, we would probably have turned up in a Newmarket maiden.”

That resounding win in the Black Country saw Pinatubo campaigned at the more traditional staging posts of the Flat racing summer.

He won at Epsom on Derby day, on the final card of Royal Ascot and at Glorious Goodwood before his sights were raised to the top level for the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh in September.

Ridden for the first time by jockey Will Buick – forced to observe from the sidelines by a head injury for the first four races of Pinatubo’s career – the horse named after a Philippine volcano was his own force of nature with a ninelength victory.

Number-crunchers assessed the performance, which saw him slashed to odds-on favouritism for the Guineas, as the best by a juvenile since Celtic

Swing a quarter of a century before. And Buick’s mount completed his unbeaten sequence in Newmarket’s Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in October.

That success was gained by a more day-to-day two lengths, but Appleby adds: “At the end of a season where he started on May 10, the Dewhurst on soft ground on his sixth outing was going to be a challenge for him. He met it well. The most impressive part of the race was his last halffurlong when he hit the rising ground and galloped out.”

Racing is the first of the major professional sports to recommence – it resumed at Newcastle last Monday – but the coronavirus pandemic forced a remodelling of the 2020 season, with the first Classic run five weeks later than scheduled. The delay has granted rival sophomores time to grow – and narrow the gap on the stubby, plain-statured Pinatubo.

“There are some three-yearolds that could have progressed physically more than we have,” concedes Appleby, who made history as the first trainer to deliver a Derby triumph to Godolphin founder Sheikh

Mohammed when Masar and Buick scored at Epsom two years ago.

“But his assets are that he’s the ultimate professional.

“Whether it be boxing, whether it be golf, those cool, calm customers are the ones that turn up with their ‘A’ game and channel their positivity into the swing of the club, the punch of the glove.”

Fourteen opponents, including stablemate Al Suhail, bid to inflict a first defeat on his star, but Appleby’s confidence is palpable.

“His [stall seven] draw is absolutely ideal, on ratings he is the best horse, he looks great and he’s won on that track,” observes the 44-year-old.

“He has both the mind and the physical attributes to pull it off.

“He’s like any sportsman at the top end. Once those gates open, it’s game on.”