Last year's G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G1 Irish Champion S. winner The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) continued his preparations for the May 24 G1 Tattersall's Gold Cup with a racetrack gallop at York Friday. The Frank Gillespie silkbearer was last seen finishing second over an inadequate nine furlongs in the G1 Dubai Turf at Meydan Mar. 28.
“The idea was just to get him away from home,” trainer Kevin Ryan told At The Races. “He did a nice piece of work, quickened up nicely and is on target for the Curragh. He's a great traveler so Dubai didn't really take anything out of him.”
Ryan said he considered the Dubai trip a win-win situation.
“If he hadn't gone to Dubai and the ground comes up very soft in Ireland, then his first run would have been at Royal Ascot so there was nothing to lose by going to Dubai,” the conditioner explained. “He ran fantastic– he was nice and fresh and we would have settled for that result going out there. He's got bigger and stronger; he's been a little bit harder to get ready this year which is why we took him away.”
As for The Grey Gatsby's later targets, Ryan said, “We'll come back to York for the [G1] Juddmonte [International] after Ascot and we've put him in the [G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe], as I think he can step up to a mile-and-a-half this year as well.”
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