The G3 Autumn S. winner Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) made all three of his juvenile starts in Newmarket and he returned to the Rowley Mile on Wednesday morning for a racecourse gallop ahead of his intended start in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas.
Ridden by William Buick and accompanied in his seven-furlong piece of work by stable-mates King Of Time (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) and Falling Shadow (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Coroebus pulled easily clear of that duo as he quickened out of the dip.
“That was just what we needed really,” said Appleby, whose Newmarket season started well with stakes victories for Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and New Science (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) on the opening day of the Craven Meeting.
He continued, “Last year as a 2-year-old, in the Royal Lodge [Coroebus] whooshed past and was quite aggressive in the way he wanted to do it – he was taking William on. You saw it in the Autumn Stakes as well. He's a very strong traveller and when you press the button it's instant.
“What I was pleased to see this morning is that he did it smoothly. That is what we've been teaching him to do all spring – to go through the gears rather than going from third to fifth. We've managed to find that extra gear in between and teach him to do it the right way round.”
Unlike Appleby's stable star Native Trail, who reappeared in the Craven S., Coroebus will not take in a formal Classic trial ahead of the Guineas, with his racecourse gallop serving as an alternative to his mooted start in Saturday's Greenham S. at Newbury.
The trainer explained, “Native Trail and himself both worked very well last Saturday and after that work I just felt this horse has only ever run at Newmarket in his three starts. Going down to Newbury would be something we haven't challenged him with before and, two weeks out from a Guineas, do we really want to be challenging him?
“I probably got as much out of that this morning as I would had we taken him to Newbury, apart from taking home some prize-money potentially. We just felt taking him to Newbury was an exercise that didn't need to be done, we could do it here on our doorstep and hopefully turn up here in two and a half weeks' time.”
Appleby added, “This fellow is by Dubawi and you can see him filling out behind as the season progresses. In the autumn of his 3-year-old career and hopefully in his 4-year-old career, I'd like to think you'll see a different individual altogether.
“He's very much a work in progress, which is why I don't want to be running in a trial to try to work stuff out when we can see it at home ourselves.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
