Publish rises in class for Ascendant assignment

The Juddmonte team expect to have a clearer idea of what Publish’s end-of-season target should be after he contests the Betting.Betfair Ascendant Stakes at Haydock on Saturday.

A huge eyecatcher when second on his Sandown debut in early July, John and Thady Gosden’s juvenile comfortably went one better on his return three weeks later and was due to step up to Group Three level over the same course and seven-furlong distance in last weekend’s Solario Stakes.

However, heavy rain at the Esher venue last Friday led to the Kingman colt’s withdrawal and he has been rerouted to Merseyside, where he will step up to a mile for the first time at Listed level.

Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s European racing manager, said: “Hopefully the ground is going to be OK. I haven’t looked too deeply into it, but it looked nice ground there on Thursday, so I’d imagine unless there’s a lot of rain coming in tonight the ground should be OK for him.

“John and Thady seem happy and haven’t mentioned any reservations. I suppose in an ideal world you’d have loved to have gone seven (furlongs) again, but that wasn’t to be and I’m sure he’s a horse that will get a mile no problem in time and hopefully he’s strong enough to be able to do it now.

“I’d say he’s a horse that will have one more run after Saturday and Saturday will determine what race that will be in.”

Publish’s rivals include George Boughey’s impressive Newbury scorer Bow Echo, Karl Burke’s course winner Shayem and Hugo Palmer’s Glacius, who won on his racecourse debut at Newmarket.

A bumper eight-race card gets under way with the Group Three Best Odds On The Betfair Exchange Superior Mile, which features the likes of Make Me King (Hamad Al Jehani), Ice Max (Burke), course-and-distance winner Suite Francaise (Charlie Johnston) and Dylan Cunha’s stable star Prague.

Tom Dascombe saddles Snow Master, who has impressed in winning each of his two starts at Yarmouth but faces a significant rise in class.

“Snow Master is a good horse, he’s done all he can,” said Dascombe.

“He’s won two starts out of two, he’s won them both really easily and it is a bit of a jump from a novice to a Group Three, but he deserves a chance.”