Scottish Impresses In Strensall Stakes

Scottish warmed up for a trip to Australia by breaking the course record for nine furlongs at York, UK, with a clear-cut success in the G3 Strensall Stakes on Saturday, August 20.

The Charlie Appleby-trained four-year-old, an unlucky second in the G3 Rose of Lancaster Stakes at Haydock Park earlier this month, raced prominently from his wide draw before settling in a close second behind Custom Cut after the first quarter-mile.

He moved up to dispute the running down the centre of the course in the straight and stayed on well under William Buick to take a definite advantage over two furlongs from home.

Scottish powered clear entering the final furlong and galloped out strongly to beat Yorker by a length and a quarter in 1m 46.61s, eclipsing the previous best set by Godolphin's Echo Of Light in the same race nine years ago.

Charlie Appleby said: “Scottish came out of Haydock well and the winner that day went on to frank the form when running a good race at Deauville. This is a good trip for him and I told William to send Scottish for home early, as the tailwind in the straight might help us out.

“William has given him a great tactical ride and I thought being drawn on the outside suited us because he may have been a little bit intimidated at Haydock. He has done it well and it was a pleasing effort.

“We will take him down to Australia and probably look at the Caulfield Cup - he won’t get into the Cox Plate just yet. I know it will be a step up to a mile and a half but he could hopefully be exciting off the front end at Caulfield.”

William Buick added: “We went slow early on but got racing very early. I was a bit too confident on the front last time at Haydock and sat too long. It was a good performance and he gave me a really good feel. He is an exciting horse.”