Forecast rain a concern as money-spinner Dragon Leader takes aim at another valuable juvenile contest

Dragon Leader has made hay in this season’s valuable sales races, landing the Premier Yearling Stakes at York’s Ebor meeting in August and bagging another load of cash when second behind Room Service in a £300,000 contest at Doncaster’s St Leger fixture last time.

He has already amassed £217,380 in prize-money and trainer Clive Cox takes aim at another big pot, with Redcar’s Two Year Old Trophy worth £150,000.

Dragon Leader sets a high standard on his York run, when he posted a Racing Post Rating of 100, but he was 12lb below that performance when second at Doncaster and the forecast rain might be a concern. It was soft ground for that latest defeat and his York effort came on quick going.

So who will relish conditions if the ground is on the soft side? Flaccianello has recorded her three highest RPRs on going with soft in the description and her best effort came last time at Ayr when she beat Two Tribes by a neck. The front two pulled three and a half lengths clear.

She was three places behind Dragon Leader at Doncaster on soft ground, but her last win suggests she has improved and trainer Richard Fahey has won two of the last six runnings.

Richard Hannon won the race in 2015 with Log Out Island and runs Love Billy Boy, who finished third behind Flaccianello at Ayr last time.
Race analysis by Graeme Rodway

Cox: good ground would be suitable

Clive Cox was busy at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sales this week trying to unearth another money-spinner such as Dragon Leader, who is the yard's top earner despite costing £45,000 as a yearling.

Cox said: “Dragon Leader has done good this year and it’s great that he’s chasing another pot at Redcar. He qualifies well for this and hopefully they don’t get too much more rain there. Good ground would be suitable. It was a bit easier than ideal at Doncaster but we were beaten by a good horse that day and he goes there in similar form.”

What they say

Philip Robinson, racing manager to Hamad Rashed bin Ghedayer, owner of Action Point
He’s been running in a higher grade than this of late, including in a Group 3 in France last time, and should be thereabouts.

Hugo Palmer, trainer of Balon D’Or
Ben Curtis thought the soft ground was against him at Doncaster last time so hopefully it stays quicker than that at Redcar. He’s one of the better ones in the race and although he'll have his work cut out to beat the principals, we’ll do our best.

Iain Jardine, trainer of Jonny Concrete
He ran very well to be second on his debut at Hamilton but he was very disappointing next time at Newmarket. He came back with a couple of issues which we’ve since ironed out and hopefully he can bounce back.

Sean Levey, usual rider of Love Billy Boy
I rode him at Lingfield on his penultimate start and he didn’t handle the track so you can put a line through that. Richard Hannon has a good record in the race and I expect him to outrun his odds.
Reporting by David Milnes

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3.35 Ascot: 'He's well in and put up an extraordinary performance last time' - key quotes and analysis for the Challenge Cup  

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