Canberra Legend An Exciting Derby Prospect

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00:00At Newmarket's Craven meeting we saw an impressive performance in the field and stakes by Canberra

00:09Legend, a three-year-old called by Australia who was trained by James Ferguson.

00:14His next intended run is the Dante Stakes at York before possibly running in the Derby

00:18at Epsom.

00:19We paid James and Canberra Legend a visit to find out what it's like being on the Derby

00:23Trail.

00:24Well we've been training for Bonhoe for a number of years now, he's been a big supporter

00:29of ours and his manager is Mark McStay who buys all his horses here in Europe and he's

00:37been very good to us and I'm very close to Mark and he's been buying some fantastic horses

00:42and fingers crossed we've done quite well for them all.

00:45Newcastle was a bit more of a relief than anything else because obviously when you know

00:48you've got a horse who's working well and doing everything right, the market showed

00:55he was backed in very short favour at that stage and obviously you just want them to

00:59go and have an educating time and you're not overly worried about where they finish but

01:04when he showed the maturity that he showed and the turn of foot that he showed when Danny

01:08asked him the question, it was as if he'd had plenty of runs and it showed that if we

01:14looked after him well enough he'd have a bright future ahead.

01:17Then he went to Newmarket which obviously is a huge step up in grade and maybe a big

01:23shout but the owner gave me permission and we discussed everything and he allowed me

01:28to run in the field and first run on turf although he'd done plenty of work on turf

01:33so you just want that to go well and obviously he proved his worth, the step up and trip

01:39was certainly what was needed I felt although he looked like he was travelling very strongly

01:44I'd say that it was a very well timed ride and we were just absolutely thrilled.

01:50I think the logical option is to go to York for the Dante, it's a flat track and one of

01:56the pinnacle derby trials, if we think that he's good enough to run in the derby then

02:01he's got to go and perform in a big race like the Dante. A mile two at York is a good test

02:08but it's a very fair track and one that I feel that he could really show his class.

02:14It's great for the owner to have one, he's been a big supporter of racing, Bon Ho and

02:19a big supporter of mine since I started with Mark and for someone who puts a lot of money

02:26into the game to have one that could potentially be class is super and that's what this is

02:33all about at the end of the day is finding the top class horses and obviously like you

02:38said there is a long way to go but if he was to go and be a runner in the derby that would

02:42be a dream for us as well, we're a very young organisation, we have a wonderful team here

02:46who all work incredibly hard to care and look after these horses to the best of our ability.

02:52It's just a joy when a horse like this comes along and hopefully with baby strides we can

02:56get there and he can be a decent runner for us on the day.