Naval Power gets big vote of confidence from Appleby for Dewhurst mission

Charlie Appleby has been surprised by the progress of Naval Power but believes his unbeaten colt warrants his position as a leading fancy for Saturday's Darley Dewhurst Stakes (3.00).

Pinatubo and Native Trail have won two of the last three Dewhursts for Appleby, William Buick and Godolphin, and the Moulton Paddocks trainer is confident his latest contender will put up a bold show at Newmarket.

Unlike Appleby's previous winners of the Dewhurst, Naval Power did not run in last month's National Stakes at the Curragh and will be making the step up from Listed level, but the trainer is happy he will not be out of place against the likes of Mill Reef winner Sakheer, who was supplemented for the race on Monday, and Chaldean.

Appleby said of the 5-2 joint-favourite with BetVictor: "Naval Power has surprised us. There aren't too many Teofilos that run as early as he did as many of them improve from two to three and then three to four as a rule. He's done everything that we've asked of him but in some ways we've not asked him, he's just brought it to the table.

"I think he goes into the weekend as a worthy joint-favourite on what he's achieved. He has a great profile for the race. He won't look out of place, that's for sure, and he's one of the horses they have to beat."

Sent off 11-2 for his winning debut at Yarmouth in May, Naval Power has progressed through the ranks with another novice success at Leicester and two Listed victories at Ascot and Haydock.

Charlie Appleby chats to the press at Dalham Hall Stud on Tuesday morning

Speaking at a preview event for the Dubai Future Champions Festival, Appleby said: "He's come along stage by stage. He was leading all of the two-year-olds in the spring because he was a quiet sensible horse no more than that.

"He didn't go under the radar on his debut at Yarmouth but when we started getting excited was the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot. We went there confident he would win but it was the style in which he did it and the way he galloped out that day that made us think it was time to start working back from some proper autumn targets.

"You would be getting excited about his three-year-old career, but he’s wanting to do it [now] so like anybody with that enthusiasm you don't try to take it back, you let him go forward with it."

Pinatubo, the 2019 European champion two-year-old, was a Darley homebred and Naval Power is the latest from the production line with his sire Teofilo (the 2006 Dewhurst winner) standing for the operation at Kildangan Stud in Ireland and his dam being by their champion stallion Dubawi.

Appleby added: "We are so lucky to have the Darley mares and stallions going so well. We're in the fortunate position of having trained some of the dams and the sires of these horses. We gain so much experience when they join us as juveniles that we know the characteristics of what the mother or father have done and that adds strength to the core team like we have at the moment."

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