Eminent all set for bow at Craven meeting

Eminent bursts clear of his rivals on the Rowley Mile on his sole career start. 

Classic candidate, Eminent, will make his seasonal debut at next week’s bet365 Craven Meeting at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse.

Part of the first crop of the unbeaten Frankel, Eminent had just one run as a two-year-old, landing a one mile maiden on the Rowley Mile last September.

He is already entered in the £500,000 Group 1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas which takes place on the Rowley Mile on Saturday, 6th May and is the first of the 35 races that make up the 2017 QIPCO British Champions Series.

He is also set to be entered in two of next week’s bet365 Craven Meeting feature events: the £60,000 Group 3 bet365 Craven Stakes over one mile on Thursday, 20th April and the £37,000 Listed bet365 Feilden Stakes over nine furlongs on Tuesday, 18th April.

Meade trains at Sefton Lodge Stables on Bury Road in Newmarket and has saddled only one previous British Classic runner, Irish Rookie, who finished sixth to Legatissimo in the 2015 renewal of the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.

Martyn Meade commented “I am very pleased with Eminent, everything that he has been doing at home has been right and his lad, Glenn Osborn, who rides him all the time, couldn’t be happier with him.”

“He is already stripping quite fit but he is difficult to assess as he has such a giant stride. He never looks as if he is going quickly because he covers so much ground.”

“He will run in either the bet365 Craven or the bet365 Feilden, he will be entered in both and we will decide nearer the time. Jim Crowley is scheduled to come and have a sit on him tomorrow morning and I hope that he will be available to ride him.”

“I think that we were lucky to even get one run into him as a juvenile because he was only a gawky baby and was very backward.”

“I was worried when he ran because he was so immature and I thought that the race might turn him inside out, but when he got to the course his behaviour was exemplary and once he hit the dip he went ‘whoosh’ – he only really got going at the finish and was difficult to pull up after the line.”

“There is a distinct possibility that he could be an Epsom Derby horse but I have to be careful to take one step at a time as I am in uncharted territory.”