'He's a good old boy who wants to perform, so we're letting him' - Coltrane camp set for Doncaster as stable stalwart keeps on galloping

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Owners Mick and Janice Mariscotti are looking forward to their annual trip to South Yorkshire this week, with popular stayer Coltrane set to carry their colours in Friday's Betfred Howard Wright Doncaster Cup for the fourth year running. 

Coltrane won the Group 2 contest at the first time of asking in 2022 and heads back to Doncaster at the end of the week having taken his prize-money haul through the £1 million mark with victory at Sandown on his latest start.

At the veteran stage of his career at the age of eight, Coltrane has a habit of pushing back whenever the word 'retirement' enters the conversation, and the way he fended off smart stayer Al Nayyir in the Listed Coral Marathon at Sandown showed he has lost none of his competitive spirit.

"He's a good old boy who still wants to perform, so we're letting him perform," Mick Mariscotti tells The Front Runner. "It was brilliant to see him pass £1 million in prize-money at Sandown and, being an ex-employee of Coral, it's always nice to win a race sponsored by them.

"That race was the first Pattern race he won on his way up [in 2022], so if it turns out to be the last one he wins there's some symmetry to the whole thing."

Coltrane: the horse of a lifetimeCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Coltrane, who cost 50,000gns from Book 1 in 2018, has been the horse of a lifetime for his owners, who are keen to listen to what he tells them with regard to his future.

"It's entirely up to him," says Mick, formerly finance director at Coral who lives in in Buckinghamshire. "He's always been quite lazy but at the moment Andrew Balding tells me he's as committed as he's ever been in training and he's enthusiastic when he turns up at the racecourse.

"While he's competitive at Pattern level, we'll give him a go. Whether we bring him back next season I don't know. We'll see what he's like in the winter but beyond Doncaster this year he's got entries at Ascot on Champions Day, the Prix du Cadran and possibly the Prix Royal-Oak.

"So it may be that he finishes off in one of those or it may be that he comes back as a nine-year-old."

Coltrane has finished outside the first two only once in his four starts this season when fifth in the Gold Cup but with no Trawlerman to contend with on Friday, it does not take that much imagination to envisage another good show in the Doncaster Cup.

"We've kept him back for this race so, provided it doesn't get too soft up there, he's going to run," says his owner. "We're going there more in hope than expectation but it's a track he likes. 

"It hasn't got some of the very biggest guns in the staying division and the pick of the bunch looks to be Sweet William. Whether he can beat Sweet William, time will tell, but I would think he'd be in and around the rest of them."

Coltrane isn't the only notable entry for his owners over the next seven days, with their unbeaten two-year-old Zavateri earmarked for Sunday's Group 1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes on day two of the Irish Champions Festival at the Curragh.

Already a dual Group 2 winner this season, Zavateri represented incredible value at just 35,000gns from Book 2 last year and has been expertly placed by trainer Eve Johnson Houghton so far.

"Subject to the weather, Zavateri is heading to Ireland," says Mariscotti. "It would need to be pretty soft for us not to run but both Eve and ourselves have decided that if the ground goes against him in both the National Stakes and the Dewhurst, which is also on the agenda, then we won't run in either of them.

"He's been fantastic and we've got high hopes for him which is why if conditions aren't right for him we won't run him."

Zavateri: bound for IrelandCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Those lofty ambitions include next year's Betfred 2,000 Guineas, for which 25-1 looks a fair price considering he's already won the July and Vintage Stakes this term.

"We'll see how he progresses but at this stage of his career, relative to anything else that's been out there, I'd say he's got as good a chance as anything," says Mariscotti of Zavateri's Classic credentials. 

"Looking at his breeding he'd ought to get the trip but you have to see how they turn from a two-year-old to a three-year-old before you make any firm decisions, but at this stage the Guineas is very much in our thoughts." 

A win on Sunday would certainly enhance those claims and thrust his owners into uncharted waters.    

"The closest we've come to winning a Group 1 was Coltrane's second to Courage Mon Ami in the 2023 Gold Cup and a Group 1 would be the pinnacle." he says. "Eve tells me he's one of the easiest horses to train and we're hopeful he can do it."

Read these next:

British racing comes together to strike before the St Leger meeting and Group 1s galore at the Irish Champions Festival 

Trevor Whelan breaks leg in three places and Jim Crowley also taken to hospital after frightening mid-race incident at York 

'She's the queen of Longchamp' - Christophe Ferland hails new Arc joint-favourite Aventure as Whirl trails in last in Vermeille 

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