Can Ebor third Earl Of Tyrone make the perfect start for William Haggas?

The All-Weather Championships fast-track qualifier is the feature on Kempton’s card and Rainbow Dreamer will be bidding for his third win in the race.

He failed to land the hat-trick when last of seven in the 2022 running but bounced back with his best run for nearly two years when runner-up in another qualifier at Southwell last month.

Rainbow Dreamer has a length and a quarter to find with the reopposing winner, Berkshire Rocco, who gained his first win at around two miles last time. 

Andrew Balding’s charge has had his ups and downs since a huge run in the 2020 St Leger, but it’s worth remembering he had a rating of 116 when winning a Listed race at Ascot later that year. He would be difficult to beat at that sort of level in any normal running of this race.

However, this has the potential to be an above-standard event with last year’s Ebor third, Earl Of Tyrone, making his debut for William Haggas. 

The five-year-old was purchased for 300,000gns towards the end of last year and the trainer excels with horses picked up from other yards. Having been bought by the same connections as Gold Trip and Protectionist, Earl Of Tyrone may well have the Melbourne Cup as his big target further down the road.

James Doyle takes the ride on Earl Of Tyrone and he’s been in flying form with six winners from his last ten rides. He arrives hot on the heels of a Meydan treble that included a pair of Group 2 wins on Friday.

Sleeping Lion has only been seen once since winning this last year and will have to defy a 299-day absence if he’s going to land back-to-back runnings in what looks a deeper race this time.
Race analysis by Phill Anderson

What they say

William Haggas, trainer of Earl Of Tyrone
He goes into quarantine on Thursday for Australia and this will tell us a bit more about him, such as if he stays or if he needs a tongue-tie. He’s in the Tancred Stakes on March 18 and the Sydney Cup on April 8 and we’ll see how he goes before we decide which way we are headed.

Jack Mitchell, rider of Aced It
He’s up against it at the weights but he loves the track, and he won at the trip last time when he previously had felt as if he wouldn’t get this far. He’s a confidence horse so hopefully he can run well again, but if it doesn’t come off he can always go back handicapping.

Andrew Balding, trainer of Berkshire Rocco
We’ll see how he gets on here to decide whether he goes to All-Weather Championships finals day at Newcastle or not.

Willy Twiston-Davies, assistant to Nigel, trainer of Earlofthecotswolds
He is all good and we feel he has sharpened up a lot for his first run back at Southwell. I don’t know why but for whatever reason – even though we took him for a racecourse gallop before Southwell – he seems to come on a lot for a run, whether it be on the all-weather or over jumps. This looks a very competitive race but we know he likes the course and hopefully he can give it another good go now he has that run under his belt.

Harry Fry, trainer of Metier
He was supposed to run at the Lingfield Winter Millions meeting which was off and then more recently the ground went against him at Newbury, so this is an opportunity to get him out. He has plenty to do on the ratings but it will be interesting to see how he gets on. He will have entries in the handicaps at Cheltenham but he’s pretty ground dependent.

Alan King, trainer of Rainbow Dreamer
The absolute legend is in great form and he shaped very well at Southwell last time behind Berkshire Rocco, a nice horse for Andrew Balding. He should run well and then we’ll freshen him up for All-Weather Championships finals day.

.
Reporting by David Milnes

Read this next:

'He gave me the same feel as he did in Dubai' - Dettori aiming for Saudi Cup success  

'It's not easily done' - Thomas expects bans with new whip rules set to cause Cheltenham Festival dilemmas  

Festival subscription offer | 50% off three months 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.