Charlton eyes Royal Ascot showpiece for Time Test

Frankie Dettori guides Time Test to success in the Tercentenary Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer. Image courtesy of Racingfotos.com.

Roger Charlton has outlined the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot as a principal target for Time Test this summer.

And, before that showpiece event on June 15, he could run in another QIPCO British Champions Series contest – the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 14.

Time Test, owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah, was a dazzling winner of the Tercentenary Stakes at Royal Ascot last year, but afterwards did not reproduce his best in either the Juddmonte International Stakes or Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“I guess the Prince of Wales’s Stakes would hopefully be a race that will suit him,” Charlton said today. “The owner has other good horses, so we’ll see.

“He’s basically a mile-and-a-quarter horse, which we saw at Ascot, and he wants fast ground. We really haven’t had that. We certainly didn’t have it in the Breeders’ Cup, the ground was horrible, and we had a wide draw. York was a messy race as we all know.”

Charlton, whose three victories in the QIPCO British Champions Series include a Prince of Wales’s Stakes triumph with Al Kazeem in 2013, added: “We will take our time and make a decision where he runs nearer the time, but he’s in good form, so we’re happy.

“I think you have to enter up and see. See what shows up and what you want to do nearer the time.”