Tadej looks like being sent to Coventry in winning at York

Tadej threw his hat in the ring for Royal Ascot with victory in the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing EBF Restricted Novice Stakes at York.

Trained by Archie Watson – who won this race with Bradsell prior to his Coventry Stakes success in 2022 – the Ardad colt was making his third career start.

His two runs prior had hinted at more to come, and under Hollie Doyle he started the evens favourite to get off the mark over six furlongs.

Drawing on the experience of his past runs he duly delivered, securing a neat neck victory from Ed Walker’s Do Or Not Do and thus enter the Coventry market at 25-1 with Paddy Power.

“He is mentally quite immature, but today it fell together nicely and he fought hard,” said Doyle.

“He’s a horse who has got plenty of ability, there’s a lot under the bonnet, but he’s still quite unfurnished.

“The stiff six at Ascot has got to be perfect and he’s shown he can handle a big occasion, he’s got experience of the track so hopefully he’ll run well. We rate him very highly, he was one of our nicest colts and a nice early type.

“We’ve plenty of others in the pipeline that aren’t as forward as him, but as far as the early types go, he was always high on the list.”