English/Ire
La Botte ready for Doncaster prep
“He is in the Lincoln and if he doesn’t go to that, he might go for the Listed race on the same day.”
Harry Eustace's talented four-year-old La Botte will warm up for a spin on the Town Moor later in the month with a run in Wolverhampton's BetMGM Lincoln Trial Handicap on Saturday.
An impressive winner of a Newcastle maiden last March, the son of Too Darn Hot went on finish a highly creditable fourth behind Cosmic Year when upped to Listed level at Newmarket before suffering an agonising defeat after a luckless passage in the red-hot Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer.
Harry Eustace's charge hasn't been seen subsequently and as a result, the Newmarket-based handler is keen from him to "blow away the cobwebs" ahead of either a run in the Lincoln, for which he is as short as 10/1 for, or in the Listed Doncaster Mile, a race won by the likes of Dancing Gemini and Charyn in recent seasons.
He said: "Wolverhampton is very much a prep run, and he is in the Lincoln and if he doesn't go to that, he might go for the Listed race on the same day,"
"He looks to have done well over the winter, and he's had plenty of time off, which is why he is having a run before Doncaster to blow the cobwebs away and remind him what his job is.
"I think he has the ability to step into Group company this year. Whether he is Docklands level, we will find out this year, but he came quite a long way in a short period of time last year and I think he has matured from three to four, so we're looking forward to running him."
La Botte, who will jump from stall ten under Jamie Spencer, faces a whole host of interesting opponents, with Andrew Balding's recent Lingfield winner and fellow Lincoln entry Regal Ulixes amongst them alongside William Haggas' First Principle, Clive Cox's last-start Kempton scorer Kingdom Cove and the consistent Two Tempting.
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