Connections of G2 Dante S. winner Permian (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) will wait “another week or so” to decide if the colt will back up at Royal Ascot after checking in 10th in the G1 Investec Derby on the weekend. Charlie Johnston, assistant trainer to his father Mark Johnston, said of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed colourbearer, “Whether you finish first or 18th in the Derby, you still have a very hard race and this horse will have to be screaming out at home for us to run him at Ascot. That will be the toughest race he runs in all year and it will be difficult to back it up at Ascot. We are never ones to shy away from running a horse if the race presents itself and the horse is well enough we would consider it.”
Johnston said Permian-who holds entries in the G2 King Edward VII S. and G2 Queen's Vase at the Royal meeting-likely did not handle the track at Epsom.
“If you take a line through his trial run at Epsom behind Cracksman and his beating of Benbatl at York, he should have finished fourth on Saturday,” he said. “If he had done that we would have been over the moon. William Buick said he didn't come down the hill quite well enough. He ran very well in the trial at Epsom, but on quicker ground in a much better race, coming down the hill is a completely different kettle of fish. He just got lost a bit and they got him in trouble pretty quickly turning in. We are a bit disappointed, but he didn't disgrace himself.”
“He is now rated 113 and has won a listed race and a Dante,” Johnston added. “If you had offered us that at the start of the season, we would have taken your hand off.”
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