Arod Eyes Queen Anne

The G1 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot is a possible next port of call for Arod (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) following his tremendous effort when third in the G1 Al Shaqab Lockinge S. at Newbury last weekend. Trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam has never made any secret of the regard in which he holds the Teofilo colt and after winning a Windsor maiden last April, he went on to fill the runner-up spot in the G2 Dante S. at York before finishing fourth in the G1 Epsom Derby. After a pleasing return in Newmarket's G3 Earl of Sefton S., Arod dropped back further in trip for Saturday's Group 1 feature and turned in arguably a career-best effort to finish third behind the Richard Hannon-trained pair of Night of Thunder (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Toormore (Ire) (Arakan). Chapple-Hyam is keen to stick to a mile for the foreseeable future and believes his stable star will be an even more potent force on a faster surface.

“He hasn't always taken his races that well in the past as he's a horse who always gives everything, but he's come out of Saturday really well and he's very fresh,” said Chapple-Hyam.”We were obviously delighted with how he ran and he's getting quicker as he gets older, which is why we decided to drop him back to the mile. I think we'll probably stick to that trip for now and I suppose we will look at that [G1 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot June 16], which will probably be even tougher, but we think we can find a bit of improvement. He's growing up now and I think even faster ground than last weekend will suit him–the faster the better, really.”