Sir Mark Prescott voiced concerns about the progress that top juvenile filly Hooray has made during a press open day at his stables.
Top juvenile Hooray has to prove that she has trained on
Sir Mark Prescott is concerned about the progress that top juvenile filly Hooray has made over the winter ahead of her Classic season.
The filly won a succession of top races last season, culminating in a four-and-a-half-length victory in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes, but the experienced trainer dropped heavy hints she would be unlikely to have the scope to make a serious three-year-old.
He intends to get her to the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 1 but his words were not exactly encouraging to her supporters.
"It's an interesting equation really," said Prescott.
"She was the best filly seen all year and on ratings was 2lb above the rest.
"The drawback is she just hasn't grown - she's the same size. Her family very often don't train on, and I've had quite a few of them. And she hasn't particularly thrived as I have started to work her now.
"The main thing for all trainers this time of year, with trying to get them ready, is whether they eat and she is not eating as well as I'd like at the moment.
"So whether she gets there or not, I don't know. But we'd like to try and whether she stays, I don't know. Either she will or she won't. It wouldn't indicate that she probably would.
"So we've got the best animal, but you've got all these little bits and pieces.
"I've got to hope, rather as John Gosden once said, that the Guineas is the last two-year-old race of the year and I was the best two-year-old, so that's the hope."
Whistlestop tour
Prescott was speaking during a rare press visit to his yard, leaving a trail of cigar smoke and anecdotes as he conducted a whistlestop tour of his historic stables.
In one corner lies a room where the great Fred Archer would sweat in his eventually tragic battle with his weight.
In another, among the immaculate topiary, are statues of his Group One-winning sisters Alborada and Albanova, and tucked away inside this working horseracing museum is the pelt of St Simon, a giant of the 19th century.
Although Heath House's current incumbent has trained many fine horses, he has only one major Classic to his name through Confidential Lady in the French Oaks of 2006.
Comparing her with Hooray, Prescott went on: "Confidential Lady was the reverse. She was a very big, strong filly, a tremendous eater and bound to improve from two to three, but she didn't have the form.
"This one is more like a trainer's exam question.
"She wasn't a good eater early on but she thrived later in the summer and I suspect that's the nature of the beast, rather like daffodils coming at the same time of year."
He went on: "I suspect her time is probably later in the year.
"What we decided was this was the last day today, she had to start work today or she couldn't run in Guineas.
"So we worked her this morning and she was fine. She wasn't very fast, obviously, in her first work, and I'll see how she goes this week.
"If she thrives we'll keep going and if she doesn't thrive, we'll have to stop and wait for something better.
"What I'm not going to do is what has been forced on many trainers over the years - pushing one - and then you wind up with no horse at all.
"We can think about a mile at Ascot in June when she's come to hand perhaps, I don't know. She'd need to do better than she's done the last couple of weeks for me to run.
"She looks well, but the manger is the problem. My little theory is the more relaxed they are, the more they'll eat; the more they'll eat, the more I can gallop them; the more I can gallop them the fitter they get and the fitter they get the more they'll win. But they need to be eating."
Stan James responded to the trainer's pessimism by pushing Hooray out to 14-1 from 12s.
