The Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury remains the most likely next objective for Michael Dods’ unbeaten juvenile Arapaho Gold.
Following back-to-back wins at Thirsk, the Bayside Boy juvenile completed his hat-trick in Newbury’s Rose Bowl in mid-July before successfully stepping up to Group Two level in the Gimcrack at York.
Dods said: “He’s come out of the race well – he never turned a hair, to be fair. Connor (Beasley) gave him a little canter (on Tuesday morning) and was pleased with him.
“It was a brilliant day. They’ve got to keep stepping and every time we’ve asked him to step up he has, hasn’t he?”
The fact Arapaho Gold has been gelded rules out end-of-season Group One races like the Middle Park Stakes, but Dods is looking forward to a return to Newbury on September 19 before targeting a possible outing on Champions Day at Ascot the following month. Both meetings will be live on Sky Sports Racing.
“All being well he’ll go to the Mill Reef and then we’ll see – it will all depend on the weather in October,” the Darlington-based trainer added.
“There is a two-year-old race at Ascot on Champions Day (Qatar Racing British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes), so he could run in that. Those would be the two races we’d be looking at and then that would be it for the season.”
Looking further ahead, Dods feels Arapaho Gold may well be capable of stepping up in distance as a three-year-old.
He said: “I see him going six or seven furlongs, I think he’d be going either.
“He will be more difficult to place as a gelding, but we’d have definitely had problems if we hadn’t gelded him, we’ll see what there is.”