Champions Series dark horses: Cape Byron

CAPE BYRON (Andrea Atzeni) wins The newmarketracecourses.co.uk Maiden Stakes Newmarket. Pic: Racingfotos.com

CAPE BYRON

Trainer: Roger Varian
Form: 21

Roger Varian and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum will no doubt be hoping for more heroics with Postponed this year.

It is a sporting decision to keep last season’s Investec Coronation Cup and Juddmonte International winner in training as a six-year-old. The majority of other owners would have retired him to the breeding sheds at the end of 2015 after his victory in the QIPCO-sponsored King George And Queen Elizabeth Stakes but Sheikh Obaid enjoys watching his horses in action.

It is fanciful to think Cape Byron will scale the same heights as Postponed but he is undoubtedly a colt with a big future.

The Shamardal colt was sent off at 12-1 for his debut in a 7f maiden at Leicester in October and shaped with great promise in finishing a length second to John Gosden-trained debutant Utmost – another colt we are likely to hear more from.

Cape Byron took that race so well that Varian ran him again just eight days later in another 7f maiden, against a dozen rivals at Newmarket, and he duly went one better in some style – travelling easily and quickening up smartly under Andrea Atzeni.

He will have no trouble staying a mile. Not many firms are even quoting him in their QIPCO 2000 Guineas betting, although Paddy Power and Betfair offer 33-1.