Wallace waits for Benbaun

Mark Wallace is hoping for the right signals from Benbaun as he contemplates running the progressive four-year-old sprinter at Sandown on Saturday.

Benbaun won a Listed race at the Curragh on Sunday and the Newmarket trainer admits he is tempted to go for the Group Three Laurent-Perrier Champagne Sprint Stakes at the Esher track.

However, he is worried about running the son of Stravinsky twice in the space of a week.

“We’ll see how he is on Friday and if he’s jumping out of his skin he’ll take his chance, but I wish the race was a week later. We’re between a rock and a hard place,” Wallace said today.

“There’s little else for him in July: a race in Naples but that’s miles away and the King George Stakes at Goodwood at the end of the month.

“A stiff five suits him and if the ground is fast he’d have a great chance of picking up a Group Three.

“It would be good for a yard like mine as I’m just starting out in the game. We’ve had a Group win in Italy and obviously won a decent race in Ireland now but winning a race like this over here would be something else.”

Benbaun is certainly putting Wallace on the map abroad, for his win at the Curragh came after he was runner-up in a Group Two at Chantilly on French Derby day.

In between came a nightmare run in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot at York where he hated the ground and lost a shoe coming out of the stalls.

“He’s an under-raced sprinter. He’s only really had the two races this year as you can forget York.

"He didn’t have a race there. It turned out to be a joke,” added Wallace.

“I don’t think he had a hard race on Sunday. He’s come back fine from the Curragh. He’s eaten up, but he would do. He’s a hardy so and so. We’ll just to have to see how he is on Friday.

“There’s an upside and a downside to it. I don’t want to risk running him too soon if he’s not ready for it.”