'Martin's not been as excited since Cup win' - Pyledriver camp gear up Vase tilt

The prospect of a three-week spell in quarantine in a Hong Kong hotel room will not discourage William Muir from taking Coronation Cup winner Pyledriver on an audacious trip to the Far East, as the trainer claims his belief in the four-year-old has never been greater.

Owned by the La Pyle Partnership, Pyledriver was a high-class three-year-old last season and registered his first Group 1 victory in Epsom's Coronation Cup in June.

A groin injury prevented him from running since, but he is due to reappear in the Grosser Preis von Bayern at Munich on Sunday week before a daring trip to Sha Tin for the Longines Hong Kong Vase, which is worth nearly £1.9 million – a prize Muir is ready to aim for despite the challenges presented by Covid-19 restrictions.

Full list of Hong Kong entries

The United Kingdom, along with Ireland and France, is on Hong Kong's list of high-risk places, which means travellers will be subject to a 21-day isolation period.

Muir said: "We've got to get through it and we'll work a way to get through it. If it's a question of going over and spending time in quarantine then we have to do that. If the organisers find there's a way round it and we're classed as elite athletes then that would be fine.

"I've been speaking to the IRB [International Racing Bureau] which is working on our behalf and they're working it all out. They're the professionals."

Muir, a senior member of the Lambourn training ranks, stressed the Sha Tin Group 1, which takes place on December 12, is far from a consolation for the races the son of Harbour Watch missed.

"I got close to having a runner out there with a very good sprinter called Averti but we decided at the last minute not to go," added Muir, who could soon be clocking up the air miles.

William Muir with his stable starCredit: Edward Whitaker

"We were always going to give Pyledriver a break at some stage, perhaps after the King George, and come back for something like this, so it's not an afterthought. All that's happened is when he had that setback we gave him an earlier holiday and he'll now run all winter, and the plan is Munich, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia in February and then Dubai in March.

"The prize-money in Hong Kong makes us look stupid in Britain. You look at the earnings of last year's winner Mogul and Pyledriver, who has won some serious races in this country, and it's nowhere near – he's won a million less."

Third in last year's St Leger, Pyledriver has a date with dual Group 1 winner Alpinista in Germany first and Muir – now training in partnership with Chris Grassick – said: "Pyledriver is in great nick, really good shape. He's been away and had a gallop and done that easily. He's galloped well at home and is moving brilliantly; he's in fantastic shape.

"He's stronger than he was before his injury and Martin [Dwyer] rode him and couldn't believe how much bigger and stronger he felt. His weight's getting close to his racing weight and I'm very happy with him.

"My faith in him is probably stronger now as I've always said he's going to get better with age. Martin hadn't ridden him for a long time and said he hadn't been excited about anything since Everton won the FA Cup in 1995!"

Pyledriver: claimed Group 1 success in the Coronation Cup by a neck from Al AasyCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

However, Muir is wary of making the journey to mainland Europe should the ground be extremely testing.

"The only doubt I have is if the ground in Germany was bottomless. It would be an idea to run him in the Churchill Stakes at Lingfield the following weekend to give him a prep race for Hong Kong, which is the race we really want to win," he said.

"That's not the plan, Germany is and the ground wouldn't ordinarily worry me if it was soft. I'm just thinking it would take a bit more out of him as it's his first run since June.

"We want to get him up for Hong Kong and it could bring him down. It wouldn't hurt him. He's won on bad ground and I'm not thinking it would knock him, I'm just considering his next race. He'll be better after his first run back but he's fit enough to do himself proud."

Pyledriver's Lambourn counterpart Hukum is also entered in the Vase along with dual Oaks heroine Snowfall, her stablemate Love and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe second Tarnawa.

The Aidan O'Brien-trained pair and Tarnawa are also entered in the Longines Hong Kong Cup, the meeting's feature race set to be run on the same day.

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