Game Ambiente Friendly stuns favourite in trial
One of the aspects of the two-week run of Classic trials after the Guineas meeting at Newmarket that makes it so much fun is that you can never be entirely sure when a realistic – and previously unconsidered – contender for the Derby or Oaks will suddenly throw their hat into the ring. Ambiente Friendly was a 100-1 shot for the Derby before the Lingfield Derby Trial but he is now no bigger than 12-1 after a powerful run down the middle of the track saw him stride nearly five lengths clear of Illinois, the Aidan O’Brien-trained 6-4 favourite, at the line.
O’Brien for one will probably have better Derby candidates in his yard than his runner here but there was no hint of fluke about Ambiente Friendly’s success. Instead, there was the sense of a young, improving colt who was a headstrong, hard-pulling type at two suddenly putting it all together.
“I’ve been riding him a lot at home and he’s become so much more manageable,” Callum Shepherd, Ambiente Friendly’s jockey, said. “My feet were on the dash for nine furlongs at Newmarket [in April] and he’s just developed so well [since], I decided to trust him today and slide forward in the hope that he’d relax.
“He handled the quicker ground and the camber beautifully and he was just relentless up the straight. I certainly didn’t think I’d be looking around in a Derby trial if I was fortunate enough to be in front in one … hopefully the best is yet to come.”
The Derby on 1 June promises to be a huge moment for everyone associated with Ambiente Friendly, who runs in the yellow and black silks of the veteran owner Bill Gredley that were carried to victory in both the Oaks and St Leger in 1992 by the outstanding filly User Friendly.
For his trainer, James Fanshawe, meanwhile, there is a rare chance to add a British Classic to a career record that includes nearly two dozen successes at Group One level, dating back to Environment Friendly’s win, in the same colours, in the Eclipse Stakes in 1991.
There was a much tighter conclusion to the card’s Oaks Trial as You Got To Me, who had raced into a clear lead at an early stage, found more when challenged inside the final furlong to hold the late charge of Rubies Are Red by half a length. “It wasn’t deliberate to go quite that quick [but] she likes to get on with things and if you get in an argument with her, she’s 10 times worse,” Hector Crouch, the winner’s jockey, said.
You Got To Me is 16-1 to give her trainer, Ralph Beckett, a third career success in the Epsom fillies’ Classic. O’Brien’s Rubies Are Red also caught the eye and is four points shorter than the winner to go one better on 31 May.