Leopardstown target for promising Heroes
Having shaped with promise on his debut at Newmarket last month, the Diktat colt created a big impression in forging two and a half lengths clear of his closest pursuer t the Berkshire venue.
He will now attempt to build on that success in the Killavullan Stakes over at Leopardstown at the end of the month.
“He’s a really nice horse and he’ll go to Leopardstown next for a Group Three,” confirmed the Newmarket handler.
“I think he’ll get more confident as we go along as he’s improving all the while at home and he’s getting used to it on the track now.
“I was a bit concerned yesterday about the cut in the ground but obviously he has an action that I thought would act on the ground.
“He’s improving and goes for the Killavullan Stakes on the 30th (October),” he told At The Races.
Another Huffer-trained two-year-old to have flown the flag for his handler this season is the talented Cockney Rebel.
He was last seen finishing a close-up third to Vital Equine in York’s Champagne Stakes, in which subsequent Beresford Stakes winner Eagle Mountain short-headed him for the runner-up spot.
Huffer has made no secret of the regard in which he holds Cockney Rebel and confirmed that he will be put away for the winter in preparation for an assault on the early-season Classics next year.
“The aim is to go for both Guineas (English and Irish) and for one of the trials early on and let him just develop,” he explained.
“He’s a big horse – he’s 16.1 (hands) – and he’s not really developed properly yet so everything he has done this year is really just a bonus.
“I don’t think he’ll grow much more but he has some filling out to do and his sire Val Royal was at his best at three, four and five. I think he’s done really well and just look what Eagle Mountain did on Sunday.”
