Night Raider (Ire)

Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics have live Guineas contenders of both sexes in 2024 as the Karl Burke-trained Night Raider (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}-Dorraar {Ire}, by Shamardal) produced a sensational display to obtain TDN Rising Star status at Southwell on Wednesday evening. Off the mark in style by nine lengths this track and seven-furlong trip on debut in December, the 1-4 favourite tanked his way to the front under Danny Tudhope from the outset. Chased entering the straight by his only serious rival, last year's G3 Acomb S. fifth Cogitate (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), the 155,000gns Tatts December Foal purchase simply extended away to score by five lengths, registering a penultimate split of 10.98 and a final three-furlong sectional of 34.12 in the process.

Burke, who is preparing the owner's G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) for the May 5 G1 1000 Guineas, is planning on sending Night Raider for the previous day's Newmarket Classic. “He's a horse of huge potential, we know that and he's not fully wound up by any stretch of the imagination,” he said of the half-brother to Farhh's G3 Palace House S.-winning first-season sire Far Above (Ire).

“His weight was identical to first time out and all of ours improve for their first time. Nadir, who leads him up, said he has taken more of a blow tonight than he did the first time. He was a second-and-a-half faster this time and I don't know if that is down to ability or the track riding faster. The Guineas isn't the be all and end all for him and he's a horse with a big future.”

“He may have been on grass at the beginning of his two-year-old career, but he certainly wouldn't have been on grass in the last 10 months or so. The idea was to go to the Guineas with a racecourse gallop at the Craven meeting-I don't want to go a mile or go for the Craven itself and if we went for the seven-furlong race at Newbury [the Greenham], that only gives us two weeks before the Guineas-or there is a seven-furlong conditions race for horses that haven't run more than twice. I have to speak to connections, but if we do go anywhere, I would be pointing that way.”

“Danny [Tudhope] just said there he could do with another run. He's still green in front and was lugging away up the straight. Another run is probably the right way to go. Laurens was pretty good in her first two runs, but he's a lovely horse with a great temperament and there's a lot of scope there, so we've just got to look after him, do the right thing by him and hopefully he reaches his full potential.”

Night Raider, who was one of colleague Adam Houghton's Ten 2024 Three-Year-Olds To Follow, is the sixth TDN Rising Star for Dark Angel. The grey's best Rising Star so far is G1 Phoenix S. runner-up Dr Zempf (GB). The winner is out of a granddaughter of the G2 Ribblesdale S. scorer and G1 Oaks, G1 Irish Oaks and GI Flower Bowl Invitational-placed Bahr (GB) (Generous {Ire}). That links him to the Group 1-winning mother and son Nahrain (GB) (Selkirk) and Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), with the latter also registering a wide-margin debut success before being thrown straight into the deep end. Also in the pedigree is the aforementioned talented sprinter Far Above, whose career was cut short by injury, and the precocious and tough Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) who captured the G2 Railway S. and G3 Pavilion S. and was also placed in the G1 Phoenix S. and GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Dorraar's 2-year-old full-brother to the winner is catalogued in next month's Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up.