Ebro River, a two-year-old colt who represents the Al Shaqab Racing silks, took the Listed National Stakes, a Class 1 sprint over the shortest distance for two-year-olds, at Sandown on Thursday evening, earning an early black-type success. This was a second consecutive success for this precocious colt in his third career-start, following on from his win at Doncaster on May 15 in the Restricted Novices’ Stakes over five furlongs.
Partnered by jockey James Doyle at Sandown, Ebro River, who is trained by Hugo Palmer in Newmarket, was back over the five-furlong trip.
He missed the break, losing a length on the field. However, he made up ground quickly on the rail to get into mid-division, taking a keen hold.
Moving progressively up, he arrived at the two-furlong post just on the flanks of the pacesetter, Little Earl. The son of Al Shaqab’s own Galileo Gold then began to show his devastating turn of foot, pulling a length clear of his rivals with 200m to go. Despite drifting across the track towards the stand, he stormed to a three-and-a-quarter-length victory.
Little Earl finished second for trainer Ray Dawson and jockey Robert Cowell while the George Boughey-trained and Nicola Currie-ridden Navello was a further three-quarters-of-a-length behind in third.
“He is tricky, there’s no getting away from that,” said Doyle. “But the guys have done a super job with him. He’s always shown a lot in his gallops. He does have that trademark of just running around when he gets to the front, but that’s something he should grow out of. We missed the break, and I just urged him slightly to creep closer to them, which lit him up a bit. The runners then moved off the fence, so I had no cover, so it was a little bit messy. But he’s super talented.”