‘He couldn’t have come at a better time’ - Royal Ascot target revealed for 2,000 Guineas fourth Into The Sky

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It might be Epsom’s biggest week of the year but one trainer in town already has more than one eye on Royal Ascot – and with very good reason.

Jim Boyle thinks he has a potential superstar on his hands in Into The Sky, whose fourth place in the 2,000 Guineas last month did nothing to diminish his trainer’s enthusiasm, and the next step is Royal Ascot, where Boyle is leaning towards the Jersey Stakes over the Commonwealth Cup.

Boyle was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper in which he opens up about the extraordinary decades-long battle he has fought with Epsom’s local residents and councillors that saw his family living in a mobile home for 20 years. Now finally able to kick on in his training career, he has the horse with the profile to do his new premises justice.

"He couldn't have come at a better time," said Boyle. "We needed to show what we felt we were always capable of and that was competing with the big boys given the right ammunition."

A wide-margin maiden winner at Newbury last year, Into The Sky led the field into the final third of the 2,000 Guineas, his cruising speed putting others in trouble before his stamina gave way and he came home in fourth. It was another run full of promise.

"There was pressure and if he'd bombed out it would have been a huge anti-climax after all that build-up,” said Boyle. “I was confident he wouldn't, but he was up against the big guns and it was an entirely different kettle of fish. It was a fantastic day and a huge sense of relief that he ran so well.

"We've taken him out of the St James's Palace now, so we're definitely not going down that route at Royal Ascot. We've left him in the Commonwealth Cup for now but I'd suggest the Jersey is definitely the more likely option. He might not have stayed the mile as strongly as some of the others in the Guineas, but he didn't fall in a hole, and that seven furlongs at Ascot should be right up his street and slightly calmer waters than the Commonwealth. 

"They're out-and-out speed horses in the Commonwealth and he's never been about that at home. Every time I see him on the track he surprises me with the speed he shows because it's not what he shows you at home. It's fascinating really and the next logical step is the seven at Ascot."

Read more from Jim Boyle in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday

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