Prince Charles moves into royal company
Following back-to-back wins by Prince Charles at the Overnight Allowance level last Wednesday (February 26), trainer Anthony Nunes says he was disappointed with the effort. But the trainer believes his four-year-old chestnut gelding can produce competitive runs at the highest level.
“I believe he [ Prince Charles] has the talent to be a Grade One sprinter. I believe so. What he needs to do is to improve on his Overnight victories to get to that level,” Nunes said.
Ridden by apprentice Reyan Lewis, Prince Charles ( Mine Over Matter – She’s Spectacular) won the six-and-a-half furlong (1,300m) event by a short head in a time of 1:20.0.
Prince Charles was off to a good start, racing in third behind the early speed led by Nuclear Thunder (Javaniel Patterson) and stable companion Graydon (Dane Dawkins). Going into the half-mile, Harry’s Train (Kiaman McGregor) recovered from a poor start and went by rivals to take up the running ahead of Graydon and Prince Charles.
In the lane, Prince Charles surged to the front and kept up his work in deep stretch but had to withstand the late charge of Wartime (Raddesh Roman).
“I’m pleased in that he [ Prince Charles] has progressed through Overnight Allowance relatively comfortably and he’s now at the Open Allowance level, but I was disappointed in the actual run today [Wednesday].
“I thought he was in better shape for this race than his previous ones.
“I don’t know if you remember me saying, when he won the other Overnight Allowance race, that I wasn’t happy with him. He had bled through Lasix when he came home and we worked on him, and I said ‘all right, we have him where we want him’.
“Yes, he ran and he won, but if you look at these last three wins at the same distance, he won in 1:18.4, 1:19.1, and 1:20.0 suggesting he is going backward or is regressing.
“He is a funny type of horse. He loves competition, as a furlong out it looked like Wartime was going to run by him, but Prince Charles fought on again so he can be tricky that way; and he is not a great workhorse either,” Nunes informed.
