Native Approach primed for big Craven test

Native Approach could strengthen Charlie Appleby’s Classic hand by providing the trainer with a fourth victory in the last six runnings of the bet365 Craven Stakes at Newmarket.

Subsequent Derby hero Masar was the Moulton Paddocks handler’s first winner of this recognised 2000 Guineas trial in 2018, while Master Of The Seas and Native Trail struck Craven gold in successive years in 2021 and 2022 before filling the runner-up spot in the Guineas less than three weeks later.

Ancient Wisdom, who enjoyed a racecourse gallop on the Rowley Mile on Wednesday morning, and the unbeaten three-time Kempton winner Notable Speech appear Appleby’s two chief contenders for the first Classic of the season on May 4.

But Native Approach – narrowly beaten on his Kempton debut in January before going one better the following month – gets an opportunity to stake his claim on Thursday.

Appleby said: “Like a lot of these horses that come off the all-weather, we’re testing them on the turf now.

“I’m not trying to sit on the fence. He looks great at home but he’s got to go and switch it on on the turf now.

“I’m always one who would rather just sit before I get too bolshy over what they have achieved or what they could achieve – like Notable Speech, he’s doing it at a different level at the moment.”

He added: “At the end of the day, from the outside looking in, the only way you can beat City Of Troy is by an unexposed three-year-old, because what he beat last year, I don’t see anything reversing the form myself.”

Native Approach’s task is far from straightforward, with a number of horses with Group One form also in contention for this Group Three contest.

Andre Fabre’s Alcantor was last seen being touched off by David Menuisier’s Sunway in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud in October and crosses the Channel for a race his legendary trainer won with Xaar in 1998.

“He’s done well over the winter, I’m pleased with him and I think running him in the Craven will be good experience for him – and for me,” said Fabre.

“He has no plan to come for the English Guineas, the French is a possible option.”

Eben Shaddad is a major contender for John and Thady Gosden on the strength of his third-place finish in last season’s Dewhurst Stakes behind Aidan O’Brien’s brilliant Guineas favourite City Of Troy.

Meanwhile, O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore team up with Cambridge, who rounded off his juvenile year by finishing second in the Group Three Eyrefield Stakes at Leopardstown.

“He has a fair bit to find with the form horses Alcantor and Eben Shaddad, but he followed up his Salisbury win on lively ground for me with a decent second in a Group Three on deep ground at Leopardstown, and hopefully there is plenty of improvement in him at three,” Moore told Betfair.

“He will probably want further down the line but this is a good starting point for him.”

The Richard Hannon-trained Haatem and Jane Chapple-Hyam’s unbeaten pair of Sons And Lovers and Champagne Prince complete the field.