'I'd like to see him in the Champion Stakes' - Adayar wins easily on return

Thursday: Hilton Garden Inn Doncaster Conditions Stakes, Doncaster

Charlie Appleby hinted Adayar could return to Ascot for the Qipco Champion Stakes next month after a smooth comeback victory on Thursday.

Adayar won the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 1m4f at the track last summer, having also landed the Derby at the same trip, and his odds for the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe were cut to 10-1 (from 25) by Coral.

But his trainer is eyeing the 1m2f showpiece on Champions Day, for which he is a 6-1 chance with Coral, believing that test will suit the four-year-old, and mindful that a Group 1 success at the shorter trip will boost his appeal as a stallion.

Racing over the shorter distance was no handicap as the Godolphin colt returned from 11 months out of action in the £50,000 conditions stakes.

Held up by William Buick and still last entering the home straight, he cruised through to see off his two useful rivals by three and three-quarter lengths and six lengths at odds of 2-7.

Although keen to stress that Longchamp was still an option for a colt who finished fourth there last year, Appleby said: "Hand on heart, I'd like to see this horse in the Champion Stakes.

"I'm not taking the Arc out of the equation by any stretch of the imagination, but I've always been looking for that mile and a quarter for him.

"I think it will suit him. He's a supreme traveller, he travelled in the Arc – if you were a betting man turning in you'd have had your house on him."

Adayar stretches clear for an easy victoryCredit: Edward Whitaker

The trainer admitted Adayar had been through harder workouts at home than in his first race if 2022, and said: "I'm delighted. I didn't want to give this horse a hard first start of the season.

"It was very much in my mind that I didn't have time to encounter a 'bounce' factor, so I wanted him to have, dare I say it, a racecourse gallop and that's what he's gone and done.

"It's so nice that it's gone smoothly and for him to do it the way he's done it, he couldn't have been any more impressive.

"That won't have taken anything out of him, so wherever we go, Champions day or Arc, it will be our first real run of the season. That's what you want."

Appleby also believes that Adayar's freshness could count in his favour this autumn.

"I'd love to have run him through the course of the season, but I'm making the most of the hand I've been dealt and looking at it as a positive that he's going into the autumn campaign with fresh legs," he said.

"When you're campaigning in those Group 1 events it does tell by the end of the year, especially on soft ground. I saw it with this horse last year, it told at the end of the year."

Buick was just as happy with Adayar and said: "He did it nicely and in the way that you'd want him to do it, so he should be able to build from this.

"We all know how good he is, it's just nice to get a nice comeback run underneath his belt. He's shown his quality and all his zest, so it was very pleasing.

"It's quite testing ground out there. For a horse who hasn't run for such a long time, you'd imagine he'd improve for it."

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