TRAINER’S OWN FLYING START

ARCHIE WATSON, the 29-yearold second-season Lambourn trainer, has made great strides this year and has been strong in the two-year-old department. For as long as he trains, Soldier’s Call will hold a special place in his heart.

The son of Showcasing gave Archie a first Royal Ascot winner when taking the Windsor Castle, a first Group Three when winning at Chantilly and, last Friday at Doncaster, a first Group Two in the Wainwrights Flying Childers Stakes by two-and-a-half lengths from Well Done Fox.

It was Watson’s 82nd winner of the year and his 41st juvenile winner, a staggering achievement for someone who started out this time two years ago with just three horses.

Last November, Watson made a Breeders’ Cup recce to Del Mar where he ran Corinthia Knight to finish fourth behind three other European horses in the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

It was not a Breeders’ Cup race then, but Watson was among several British trainers who wrote to the Breeders’ Cup organisers asking for its inclusion. This year it is a fully-fledged Breeders’ Cup race and looks the perfect end-of-season target for Soldier’s Call. “Soldier’s Call is a very quick two-year-old,” said Watson. “He won a Group Three in a very fast time in France and backed it up here within 13 days. There are lots of good, older five-furlong horses around, but you’d like to see him getting a shed-load of weight [in the Abbaye] and seeing what he could do.”