Alan “not ruling out” Spyce taking on the big guns in Futurity at Doncaster

September 16

Everyone has loved Spyce since the day he walked into Barbury in mid-April, so it was no surprise when Alan tonight stressed that he was “not ruling out” a tilt at the G1 Futurity at Doncaster on October 25 for our new stable-star,

Spyce had run with so much promise first time out in the prestigious Convivial Stakes at York last month, so the holiday makers at Yarmouth were quick to lump on the 7-4 favourite for the £40,000 maiden earlier this afternoon.

Rossa Ryan was adamant that Spyce had more in hand than the winning distance of a neck might suggest, and Alan, who had forked out 280,000gns for the Too Darn Hot colt at the Newmarket Breeze=Up Sales, was suitably impressed.

Alan said:”I am delighted as it looked quite a hot race. There was a lot of money just before the off for the runner-up, yet the first two pulled three and a half lengths clear of the third, who had decent form, so I have to be happy with that.

“Spyce is quite a laid-back horse, and, while he does everything we ask of him on the gallops in the morning, I wouldn’t say he is an exceptional worker.

“It’s common knowledge that my two-year-olds normally come on an awful lot for their first run, so when he ran so well against a well-regarded colt like Frescobaldi at York on his debut that suggested to me tbat he could be pretty smart.”

The fact that Alan has already entered Spyce for the Futurity, Britain’s last Group 1 race of the season, was a pointer to how highly he rates the youngster, and Town Moor is clearly now very much on his mind.

He added:”We’ll see how Spyce has come out of the race, and I’ll have a chat with Rossa and the owners before we decide what to do next. So many of the other major two-year-old races close early, so Spyce is not entered in anything else, so if we all agree to go to Doncaster then he would not have a run beforehand.”

Rossa Ryan did not need to be unduly hard on Spyce to hold off John Gosden’s debutant Lightning Thunder, and he was in no doubt that the best is yet to come.

He said:”Spyce has definitely improved since York, but I still think that he could come on bundles. He got a bit lost between the three and two-furlong poles, but he soon got back on track and put his head down, and from thereon I felt confident that he would get the better of the other horse.

“However, he could be one to look forward to as a three-year-old. He was strong at the finish here, so getting a trip next year won’t be a problem.”

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