Group 1 winner Gear Up (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) is training well in advance of a start in the G2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante S. at York on May 13, trainer Mark Johnston has revealed. The bay colt broke his maiden at York last July and added the G3 Acomb S. there in August. Only fourth in Newmarket's G2 Royal Lodge S. on Sept. 26, Gear Up handled heavy ground with a win over 10 furlongs in the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud on Oct. 24.
“He's got all the credentials, and we're really looking forward to it,” said Johnston. “It's almost a case of whatever happens [this week] he'll be going to the Derby after.
“We went close with Dee Ex Bee a few years ago [runner-up at Epsom in 2018], but this horse is a Group 1 winner already and he'd be the first of those I've run in the Derby I think–I haven't had that many runners in it all told.
“He did well over the winter. He was extremely green when he won at York first time–but when he went back for the Acomb nobody was expecting him to step up quite the way he did.
“Franny [Norton] said after the Royal Lodge that it wasn't his running–and he called James Doyle before the French race to tell him to make plenty of use of him.”
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