English/Ire
Scott eyeing Craven run for Commander's Intent
George Scott will see if he has a potential Classic contender on his hands by running the talented Commander's Intent in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket next month.
Owned by Victorious Forever, Commander's Intent showed some useful form as a juvenile, filling the runner-up spot in stakes company on three occasions after landing a Doncaster nursery.
Runner-up on his first outing at Group 3 level in Germany, the son of Godolphin's Classic hero Victor Ludorum went on to chase home Charlie Appleby's subsequent Dewhurst Stakes third Distant Storm in the Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket's Rowley Mile venue before returning a somewhat unlucky loser in Listed company in France.
With Commander's Intent having reportedly done well over the winter months, Scott is keen to test the waters in a Classic trial.
"Commander's Intent has been working noticeably well throughout the late winter and into the spring," he said. "He'll go for the Craven. It will ideally be the Craven but if it was going to be better ground at Newbury, which I don't suspect it will be, then the Greenham would come into play.
"He's got form on the Rowley Mile and whilst I'm not saying that he's a Guineas horse, I think it's a sensible place to get started and make a plan.
"It feels like the mile is the right route. I don't think either seven or a mile will be a problem but he's a horse that will be ridden forward and will be fit.
"I don't know where he'll land in a Craven but that will give me an indication to make a plan."
The Craven will not be the be-all-or-end-all for Scott, who is already eyeing lucrative prizes further afield with his classy three-year-old.
He added: "He's definitely a horse I could see at Kentucky Downs in the summer, he's a beautiful horse. He was a very good two-year-old, he was stakes-placed in three different countries.
"I think we'll work back from something at Royal Ascot with him, but we'll see how the Craven goes."
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