The impeccably bred Raaheeb strengthened his Derby qualifications with an impressive comeback in the bet365 Classic Trial at Sandown.
The Sea The Stars colt is a well-qualified full-sire to the outstanding Baaeed, who won 10 of his 11 starts for William Haggas, as well as the top-class Hukum, who won the Coronation Cup and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes under the expert tutelage of Raaheeb’s trainer Owen Burrows.
Raaheeb appeared to have inherited much of his family ability when he made a successful start to his career over seven furlongs at Ascot in early September and had little trouble making notable strides in both distance and class for his three-year-old debut in this ten-furlong Group 3.
Aidan O’Brien’s favorite Action showed hesitation when under pressure and was ultimately a disappointment, but the Burrows runner traveled kindly and found plenty after Rossa Ryan was called upon to draw three quarters of a length from the chasing pack led by Al Zanati.
Burrows said: “To be honest, I came here today thinking we would be happy if we finished in the frame, so I was a little surprised to get a win like that.”
“Rossa said he was a blow by half a furlong, but I liked the way he put his head down and hit the line hard.
“He will stay for sure and Rossa thought he got himself back together at the finish and hit the line strong. I wouldn’t have any complaints about running a few more furlongs. We’ll see how he comes out before we decide when to run again. He’s on Dante but that could come a little early.
“If he had won today, I wouldn’t have been disappointed if he had run a good race. Today was a big learning curve and we wanted to know what was what and we wanted to get a good answer, so we pushed him into the deep end.”
Bookmakers have Raaheeb 8-1 down in the 20s for the Derby, but Burrows tends to let the dust settle before making a firm decision.
He added: “I don’t want to commit to Epsom at this stage, we’ve got Ascot and the Irish Derby so we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rider as good as this three-year-old. His potential wasn’t there at this stage. He’s better than Hukum at this stage. That’s exciting.
“The way he behaved in the stalls was a bit out of character and I was hoping to get a bit of freshness out of him because he doesn’t show it. “You have that in your mind when you consider the Derby and it might be a bit too soon for me, but we’ll wait and see.
“He’s an important horse and we have to do it right. His older brother is better at six, so we don’t want to do anything wrong. He’s probably better than Hukum at this stage, but we have to do it right.”
