‘Hard fit’ Inner City Blues handed Middle Park chance

Charlie Appleby believes an extended break can be a recipe for success for Inner City Blues when he steps up to the top table for the first time in the Tattersalls Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.

The Blue Point colt barely broke sweat when striking on debut in a York maiden in June and he followed that up in the July Stakes.

Off the track for 79 days, the Moulton Paddocks handler is confident he can make a seamless transition to Group One level, with ante-post favourite Great Barrier Reef and National Stakes winner Folsom Blues not declared.

Appleby said: “There’s been a couple of options since the July Stakes, but he would always be carrying that penalty unless you step up into Group One company. So we decided to wait and have one crack at the Middle Park.

“He’s done nothing wrong, he’s two from two and we purposely gave him a break after the July Stakes.

“We toyed with giving him a run in Ireland, but felt the horse was still growing and being a breeze-up horse we felt he had done enough for the first half of the year.

“He was always great physically, but he has maintained it and is hard fit and it has opened up the race with the first two coming out. You would have to go in there with a bit of confidence.”

Clive Cox is hopeful a sounder surface can bring out the best in Orthodox after he was caught out by soft ground in the Prix Morny at Deauville.

But he showed what he can do on better ground when pulling away to be an impressive three-and-a-half-length winner of the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Cox has no worries he can stay six furlongs.

Cox said: “He’s in good form and I have been really pleased with his work in the build up to this and with the forecast. Hopefully a nice dry surface at Newmarket would be right up his street.

“I’m very happy indeed with him and he’s trained especially well through the last few weeks.

“He was not happy on the softer ground, they’d had 60mm of rain in the week and whilst it was drying rapidly it was still very dead underneath.

“He was very impressive (on better ground) and I’m very pleased that he’s continued building physically and mentally and we’re very happy with him.

“We’ve got to prove it yet that he will get six and I really hope that will be the case. The way he galloped out at Ascot on the quicker surface, he took a bit of pulling up that day. I’m very hopeful and confident he’ll be able to compose his performance as much as he did at Ascot over six furlongs.”

Push The Boat Out is another colt putting an unbeaten record on the line on the Rowley Mile.

The Michael O’Callaghan-trained Kodi Bear colt beat the reopposing Marco Polo in a Curragh maiden before getting the better of Great Barrier Reef by just a neck when stepping up to Group Three level in the Tower Stakes.

Paul Curran, racing adviser to owners Ace Stud, would have liked to renew rivalry with Great Barrier Reef but is keen to see how he performs at the highest level.

Curran said: “He’s going to put his unbeaten form to the test and there’s no better place than the best six-furlong race for two-year-olds and we’re looking forward to it.

“He’s very uncomplicated in the way he’s been so far and the ground is going to be perfect and it will suit him nicely and we’ll know a little bit more about him on Saturday.

“It’s a bit disappointing to see Great Barrier Reef for Coolmore wasn’t declared, it would have been nice to see him take him on again. He’s in good form and he has been working well at Michael’s place and all roads lead to Saturday and we’ll wait and see what happens.”

Aidan O’Brien saddles both Marco Polo and Confucius and said: “We’ve always thought a lot of Marco Polo, it was why we ran him in the Gimcrack as a maiden. He got a little bit lost at York unfortunately, but he’s come out and had a nice confidence-booster at Cork since.

“Confucius has always shown us plenty and is wearing blinkers for the first time.”

Robson De Aguiar’s Force Noir and Hell Of A Spin from Adrian Keatley’s yard completes the seven-runner line-up.