Pyledriver bidding for a fairytale Classic win
SOME of the best Flat horses in Europe chase glittering prizes this weekend but themost popular winner will be Pyledriver if he can land the Pertemps St Leger at Doncaster.
The unfashionably-bred colt, who no one wanted when he was offered for sale as a foal, has already added a splash of colour to a disrupted season with impressive wins in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York.
The successes have been the biggest in the career of jockey Martin Dwyer since he landed the 2006 Derby on Sir Percy. Owner-breeders Roger Devlin and brothers Guy and Huw Leach have since turned down ‘life-changing offers’.
The only disappointment came in the Derby when Pyledriver’s race was over virtually as soon as it had begun, when he ended up in an impossible position at the back of the field. The blip never dented the faith and confidence of trainer Willie Muir, who will once again be at the wheel of his horsebox when he drives Pyledriver from his 26-horse stable in Lambourn to take on some of racing’s biggest operations.
Muir believes Pyledriver, whose sire Harbour Watch was a sprinter who only raced three times as a two-year-old, and dam La Pyle a hurdler beaten over 70 lengths on her final race at Fontwell, will stay the St Leger’s one mile, sixand-a-half furlongs.
Muir said: ‘We are going into uncharted waters, but people raised exactly the same doubts when we went from a mile-and-aquarter to a mile-and-a-half. I am very relaxed about it.
‘I thought we had a great chance in the Derby and it all went wrong. We were the meat in the sandwich and got knocked out of the race. If it hadn’t happened, we would have placed if you watch him from a furlong and a half out.
‘Some thought I was being too bullish but his win in the Voltigeur proved it. We’re not a fashionable yard, but if we happen to win a Classic, what an achievement for a small yard.’
Pyledriver shares favouritism at 11/4 with Irish Derby winner Santiago, one of three Aidan O’Brien entries and the mount of Frankie Dettori. Santiago subsequently finished third to Stradivarius in the two-mile Goodwood Cup, but the race did not go to plan.
‘It maybe didn’t work as we’d liked,’ said O’Brien. ‘We usually like to take our time on him and he just hit the gates on Ryan (Moore) and he couldn’t really get him back. He was just sitting in the second position and Ryan would have felt maybe he was a gear too high all the way.
‘Because of that he went from travelling very well to having to drop him and ask him to go and race very quickly and he really didn’t get his breath to go again.
‘It didn’t really work, but it didn’t do him any harm and he seems to be in good form. We had to give him a little bit of an easy time after it, because obviously when things don’t work or go smooth for a horse usually they have a harder race, but he seems to be in good form again.’
Dettori rates Pyledriver as his chief threat. ‘Santiago is a Classic winner, he stayed two miles at Goodwood. In an open race, he’s a great ride. William Muir’s horse is the one to beat, without a doubt. You need class to stay — and he’s got class.’
The way Hukum lit the line when winning the one mile, five-and-ahalf furlong Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury makes it hard to believe he won’t stay and the classy Owen Burrows-trained Royal Ascot winner looks a big danger to all.
The best outsider could be David Simcock’s 22-1 shot Mohican Heights. The Derby did not work out for Jamie Spencer’s mount but he was an eye-catching third to Pyledriver at Royal Ascot.