James Owen believes the future is bright for Wimbledon Hawkeye
Trainer James Owen
James Owen believes Wimbledon Hawkeye has a very bright future having split The Lion In Winter and Ruling Court in the Acomb Stakes at York last week.
Aidan O’Brien’s The Lion In Winter and Charlie Appleby’s Ruling Court were joint-favourites for the Derby before their clash, in which the Ballydoyle runner broke the course record.
While Owen has no next target in mind just yet, he feels the Gredley family-owned Kameko colt will be even better next season.
“Wimbledon ran great, it was a track record and he’s a real nice horse for the future,” said Owen.
“He’s well entered up, we haven’t made a plan for where we are going yet but he’s definitely going to improve for going over a mile if not further.
“He got beaten by the Guineas and Derby favourite and yet he’s not even in the betting for either, which is slightly annoying. I’m sure if he was trained by a big outfit he would be.”
Elsewhere at York, Owen felt Burdett Road failed to stay the Ebor trip and he will run over shorter next time out before going back over hurdles.
Well fancied for the feature race on the Knavesmire, he faded inside the final furlong to finish 12th behind Magical Zoe.
“I had a great time at York, we were unlucky in a couple of races, I learned a bit myself and I personally didn’t think Burdett stayed, but we’ll find out, we’ll know next time,” said Owen.
“He’s come out of the race great so we’ll definitely go again on the Flat, we might just bring him back in trip.
“He’s had quite a light campaign really because he had the break after his hurdling campaign.
“He’s definitely going to go back hurdling, but we will look to run again on the Flat, just bring him back in trip a bit. We put the hood on to help him stay a mile and six, but we’ll probably take it off and do what he used to do.”
