Glorious start on Guineas journey

GLORIOUS Journey was introduced into the market for next year’s Qipco 2000 Guineas after making a winning introduction in division one of the Margaret Giffen Memorial EBF Novice Stakes at Newmarket.

While plenty more bridges need to be crossed between now and next May, the son of Dubawi made an encouraging first step when getting up by a neck to pay back a small slice of the 2,600,000 guineas laid out for him by John Ferguson, as Godolphin dominated at Headquarters.

The Charlie Applebytrained two-year-old was given a 33-1 quote by Paddy Power for the opening colts’ Classic.

Appleby said of the even-money winner: “He showed good signs early on, but then about eight weeks ago he went backwards. We backed off him and over the last four weeks he came back to himself and he put in a good piece of work last week.

“William (Buick) said he did everything right. We have not set any targets. We will let him tell us when he is ready, whether that is for the July Meeting or we wait a bit longer.

“He has got a couple of options there, as there is the July Stakes or the Superlative.”

Folk Tale (13-8) put his previous experience to good use to gift Appleby and Buick more success in division two of the six-furlong event when pulling out enough to build on his debut fourth at Goodwood and get home by a neck.

Appleby said: “This horse has come forward from his last run. He has done work with the other fellow (Glorious Journey) so it all stacked up.

“He was still a bit free and he is learning on the job. He needs to learn to settle better if he is going to step up in class.”

Appleby and Buick struck again when Culturati defied a 610-day absence to book his Royal Ascot ticket in obliging by a length and a half in the Porsche Centre Cambridge Handicap.