• 2 days ago
Transcript
00:00At Newmarket's Craven meeting we saw an impressive performance in the field and stakes by Canberra
00:09Legend, a three-year-old called by Australia who was trained by James Ferguson.
00:14His next intended run is the Dante Stakes at York before possibly running in the Derby
00:18at Epsom.
00:19We paid James and Canberra Legend a visit to find out what it's like being on the Derby
00:23Trail.
00:24Well we've been training for Bonhoe for a number of years now, he's been a big supporter
00:29of ours and his manager is Mark McStay who buys all his horses here in Europe and he's
00:37been very good to us and I'm very close to Mark and he's been buying some fantastic horses
00:42and fingers crossed we've done quite well for them all.
00:45Newcastle was a bit more of a relief than anything else because obviously when you know
00:48you've got a horse who's working well and doing everything right, the market showed
00:55he was backed in very short favour at that stage and obviously you just want them to
00:59go and have an educating time and you're not overly worried about where they finish but
01:04when he showed the maturity that he showed and the turn of foot that he showed when Danny
01:08asked him the question, it was as if he'd had plenty of runs and it showed that if we
01:14looked after him well enough he'd have a bright future ahead.
01:17Then he went to Newmarket which obviously is a huge step up in grade and maybe a big
01:23shout but the owner gave me permission and we discussed everything and he allowed me
01:28to run in the field and first run on turf although he'd done plenty of work on turf
01:33so you just want that to go well and obviously he proved his worth, the step up and trip
01:39was certainly what was needed I felt although he looked like he was travelling very strongly
01:44I'd say that it was a very well timed ride and we were just absolutely thrilled.
01:50I think the logical option is to go to York for the Dante, it's a flat track and one of
01:56the pinnacle derby trials, if we think that he's good enough to run in the derby then
02:01he's got to go and perform in a big race like the Dante. A mile two at York is a good test
02:08but it's a very fair track and one that I feel that he could really show his class.
02:14It's great for the owner to have one, he's been a big supporter of racing, Bon Ho and
02:19a big supporter of mine since I started with Mark and for someone who puts a lot of money
02:26into the game to have one that could potentially be class is super and that's what this is
02:33all about at the end of the day is finding the top class horses and obviously like you
02:38said there is a long way to go but if he was to go and be a runner in the derby that would
02:42be a dream for us as well, we're a very young organisation, we have a wonderful team here
02:46who all work incredibly hard to care and look after these horses to the best of our ability.
02:52It's just a joy when a horse like this comes along and hopefully with baby strides we can
02:56get there and he can be a decent runner for us on the day.

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