Pyledriver gives fans another great day - you underestimate him at your peril

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In Monday's email Chris reflects on Pyledriver's King George win – and subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from Chris every Monday to Friday.

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Pyledriver fans, of whom there really ought to be an increasing number, have a lot to look forward to. One of his owners, Guy Leach, tells the Front Runner the plan is for the horse to stay in training next year, rather than be hussled off in pursuit of stallion dollars.

He would then be the first male since Swain to win a King George at the age of five and come back for the following season. But this particular fairground ride is just too much fun to get off for Leach, his brother Huw and their friend Roger Devlin, who share ownership of Pyledriver.

"I think we take the view that we'd run him for as long as he's performing and enjoying it," Leach tells the Front Runner. "It would be the plan, if he's still performing, that we'd run him next year as well and go and do this whole thing again, I think."

I've been talking to Leach at intervals since his horse scored a breakthrough win at Royal Ascot a couple of years ago, when lockdown rules in Wales prevented the owners from attending. They also missed out on the Derby that summer and the Hong Kong Vase at the end of last year, in which Pyledriver was a close second; attendance would have required three weeks in quarantine.

So a lot has been missed, which is a pity for a happy band who have finally got their horse of a lifetime after 20 years in ownership. But Saturday was the day when it all came right.

"It's difficult to put these things into words, they're so exciting. What was very special was having the family with us. They missed out more than we've missed out."

Including daughters and their fiances, a total of eleven members of the clans made it to Ascot to provide hearty cheers for their hero, even as others in the stand fell silent in the face of what, to them, was a surprise result. Pyledriver is possibly the only horse to win twice at Ascot at odds of 18-1, that having also been the SP when he landed the King Edward VII.

"We were all there together and celebrated together. We all went back to the stables last night, when the stable staff were having a party and we joined them. It was really nice to share their joy as well. There was some concern going on about how they were going to manage to get up the next morning...

"I've spoken to William [Muir] and all is fine, the horse is great. Poor, old William was up at 5am on Sunday. I don't think he slept particularly well, so getting up wasn't an issue for him."

Leach backed the winner at 20-1 ante-post, expecting he might be nearly half those odds on the day. I'm afraid we have, collectively, underestimated Pyledriver again. His strike-rate is 39 per cent, but he's only been favourite for one of his seven wins, on other occasions defying odds of 50-1, 14-1, 10-1 and 8-1.

"We definitely thought he'd run well," Leach says. "There were negatives about a lot of them. You could find reasons why we would beat them.

"The one big concern was giving Westover 11lb, if he was the real deal. That was very, very tough.

"Even so, William was convinced we were going to win. I couldn't say that but I was looking for certain to be in the first three and to feature. Things have got to go radically wrong for him to not get involved."

In the event, nothing ever looked remotely like going wrong. "It was our day, wasn't it? It couldn't have gone more perfectly. At every stage of the race, you thought, this is going okay.

"We were very happy, coming off the bend. It was almost like deja vu from the King Edward VII. He looked the winner and away he went."

Still, there are reputations to be protected and we will doubtless be invited to put a line through the race on behalf of those who ran disappointingly. But to do so would be to take credit from the winner and would that be fair?

"The race went our way," Leach acknowledges. "Certainly, Broome and Westover took each other on and that helped. He had the perfect tow into the race.

"But William called it before the race. He was saying, when we win, they'll all be saying it's a poor crop of three-year-olds.

"I don't know what more the horse has to do for people to start giving him some credit." He points out that the time of the race was strong, compared to other races on the day, as a King George should be.

Anyway, Pyledriver has given the team many big days and gathered £1.8m in prize money, so ultimately it doesn't matter much what the outside world thinks.

Until now, the thinking has been that Pyledriver needs a prep run before his main targets but his Saturday success followed an absence of seven weeks. Leach muses that perhaps his next race may be the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe itself.

After that, they have lots of lovely options, like the Breeders' Cup Turf, the Japan Cup, Hong Kong again. These are decisions to savour over many an evening to come.

Best of all is the fact that the owners also have Pyledriver's dam, La Pyle, who is just 11 years old and hopefully has a good few foals to come. It has been a really big summer for her, as all three of her kids of racing age have won since the beginning of June.

"Country Pyle, who William always said was very weak and would be a stayer, has won a maiden over 1m6f. I think there's more to come from her.

"Stockpyle, who showed an awful lot of ability as a two-year-old last year and then got injured and just struggled for a bit, he's come together and won his last two races.

"The two-year-old's in training, Shagpyle, she's a Frankel. Her name is Marmite: some people say, how can you do that to her but the younger generation all think it's fun and that's what racing needs to be.

"We've got a nice Kingman filly foal. And we've given her a rest this year." Such an outcome would have been hard to foresee when La Pyle trailed home last of four in a Fontwell novice hurdle on Boxing Day 2015.

The fortunes of her owners have certainly improved since then. And whatever happens now, Saturday will be extremely hard to top. "Memories are better than dreams," says Leach.

Monday's picks

Hopefully, some of you were on Friday's tips, which scored at 11-4 and 9-1.

I see Kondo Isami has changed stables again and runs at Ayr. He'll probably win there one day, now that he's with Mike Smith, but it's a bit merciless that he's only been dropped 6lb for four consecutive, heavy defeats. Not today for that guy, I think. Perhaps he'll be interesting after a few more runs and a gelding operation.

Noble Anthem (3.20) is surely the right favourite and possibly a bit bigger than might have been expected at 7-4. From the Archie Watson yard that has a 21 per cent strike-rate at this distant track, he was value for more than the neck by which he beat Glasses Up on his handicap debut last time.

He has plenty of physical potential and the cheekpieces go on now. His Newcastle fourth to Eldar Eldarov in May has worked out.

Tonight at Ffos Las, it may be worth giving a chance to Fresh Fancy (8.00), from the in-form Harry and Roger Charlton yard. She seemed to need her reappearance run at Thirsk at the end of May, only the second start of her life.

Being a sister to Pied Piper, she ought to like this step up to 1m2f on softer ground. Odds of 10-1 look big against a favourite who needs to settle better than last time.

Here's Richard Birch with some Monday tips.

Three things to look out for today . . .

1. Some promising youngsters line up for the juvenile maiden that opens Ayr's card and perhaps Capital Offence, the only debutant, can also show he has a future. Trained by Ed Bethell, he has another four entries beyond today, including a sales race at Naas next Monday as well as the Gimcrack. By Acclamation, he's out of a half-sister to the Abbaye winner Maarek and carries the grey of Clipper Logistics.

2. Another juvenile debutant with entries for classy races is Cairo, an Aidan O'Brien runner in the third on Galway's opening night. A son of Quality Road, he's out of a Galileo mare who is a sister to nearly-horse Gustav Klimt. O'Brien has him in the National Stakes in September, though the Ballydoyle trainer does have 28 alternatives for that race. Dermot Weld has the likely favourite, which is hardly surprising at Galway, but the stable's winnerless run goes back 43 days. We'll soon find out if that was worth worrying about.

3.Lot Of Joy is a fascinating contender for the Connacht Hotel Handicap, Galway's following race. Formerly based in Norway with Wido Neuroth, she won the Swedish Leger in October and was second in the Swedish Oaks, third in the Norwegian Oaks and sixth in the Norwegian Derby. She then fetched €165,000 when sold in December and has turned up in Willie Mullins's yard. She has another entry on Friday and is already down to 25-1 for the Ebor. She's a Camelot half-sister to last year's Ebor winner, Sonnyboyliston.

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday