The preparation has been done, and now all that Ed and the team at La Grange can do is to take their places on the Rowley Mile course on Saturday and hope and pray that NATIVE KHAN runs his race in the Qipco 2000 Guineas.
Ed knows that Native Khan is taking on what may prove to be the horse of the decade in Frankel, but our fellow ticks many of the boxes and goes into the race seemingly in terrific form and ready to run the race of his life.
Summing up his chance, Ed said:"Native Khan is rated 111, as against the 126 of Frankel, so if the favourite is on his game we need to produce a career best performance to get anywhere near him. However, Native Khan has improved since he won the Craven and he seems more laid-back in his work. There is precious little rain around and they are talking of temperatures around 19 degrees for the big race, so it looks like we will get our fast ground and there also seems to be plenty of pace in the race. We won't be making excuses if we are not good enough."
"However, while Native Khan was a decent two-year-old, we always thought that he would be much better at three, and, hopefully, that will prove the case. We have been lucky to have had four classic winning fillies in Ta Rib, Lailani, Ouija Board and Snow Fairy, and it would be great if we could hit the bullseye with this colt. The owner (Ibrahim Araci) has been very supportive to the yard, and he deserves all the success that he is getting."
Should the dream become reality, Ed might be forced to put the celebration champagne down for a minute around 4pm as we have KANAF running in the big sprint handicap at Goodwood. "Kanaf improved a lot last summer and won impressively at Lingfield and Sandown, but he hated the soft ground at Ascot on his final outing so he, too, should relish the conditions. He has been off since September and will improve for the run, and, while this downhill five furlongs might be on the sharp side, I am a big fan of Goodwood, and this is a good place to start off again."