Ancient Wisdom & Arabian Crown go in G3 Gordon Richards Stakes

Ancient Wisdom drops down to a mile and a quarter for the G3 Gordon Richards Stakes, with course and distance winner Arabian Crown also lining up in the Sandown Park contest on Friday, 25 April.

Victorious in the G1 Futurity Trophy at two, Ancient Wisdom raced over middle distances throughout his three-year-old campaign, including finishing second in the G2 Dante Stakes and comfortably taking the G3 Bahrain Trophy.

Ancient Wisdom ended his season with a third in Germany’s G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern but trailed home last of seven on his seasonal return in the G3 Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes at Newbury earlier this month.

Arabian Crown looked a leading Derby contender following a dominant win in the G3 Classic Trial on this card 12 months ago but missed the rest of the campaign through injury.

He shaped with promise on his return to action in the G2 Dubai City Of Gold at Meydan’s Super Saturday fixture, in which he stayed on from the rear to take fourth behind Silver Knott.

Charlie Appleby, who trains both Dubawi colts, said: “Ancient Wisdom has come forward for his run at Newbury, when he looked ring rusty. I don’t think dropping back to a mile and a quarter is going to be an inconvenience and it’s something that we have toyed with over the spring. Hopefully, he can run a solid race and we can look at some summer targets on good or softer.

“Arabian Crown has definitely come on since his run in Dubai. This trip might be slightly on the sharp side as we feel that he might be better over a mile and a half. It’s time to get him back on the racetrack and we felt that the ground might get too quick for him if we waited until something like the Jockey Club Stakes at the Guineas meeting.”