Straight From The Horse’s Mouth: Coral Easter Classic

How much do the connections of your Easter Classic fancy rate their mount? In our feature ‘Straight From The Horse’s Mouth’ we aim to collate, in one article, the best of the quotes concerning each of the leading entrants ahead of Easter Friday’s spectacular.

Tryster

Two-time Group One winning jockey George Baker told Sky Sports in an interview that he thought Tryster was ‘a product of [Godolphin’s] change of policy and a prime example of why it’s working for them’. Although he was eager to stress his reservations ahead of the horse’s rematch with second-favourite Grendisar:

‘He’s a good horse and I’m looking forward to seeing him again this week, but I’m not convinced that he will definitely confirm his Winter Derby form over Grendisar.’

In opposition, following the four-year-old’s win in Lingfield’s Winter Derby, Tryster’s long time rider Adam Kirby said: ‘Tryster is an exciting horse and he improves with every run. He keeps coming forward and I am delighted with him.’ [Retrieved from Sporting Life]

Meanwhile, trainer Charlie Appleby waxed lyrical about the five-time winner, telling the Daily Express just two weeks ago: ‘Tryster has thrived and he is an exciting horse going forward. We didn’t pinpoint him out to be a synthetic horse – it was just that we came to the end last season,

‘He has proven today [Winter Derby] that he is a horse with supreme confidence and there is plenty of scope in him.’

Grendisar and Solar Deity

Marco Botti is the only trainer to be two-handed in Good Friday’s Easter Classic. The Italian saddles both Winter Derby runner-up Grendisar and Solar Deity who completed Kempton’s listed Magnolia Stakes in third.

Speaking after that race, Botti described Solar Deity as being ‘a tough horse’ who ‘seems to be at his best on the All Weather and with his rating of 107 there aren’t many races he can run in.’ [Retrieved from Sky Sports]

The Ryan Moore-ridden charge, who has the third highest official rating of all the horses in the race after his stablemate (109) and Complicit (108), finished just over two lengths behind St Leger runner-up Romsdal at Kempton.

Grendisar was last seen missing out on the Winter Derby title by three-quarters-of-a-length but took a Lingfield trial for that race by a short head back in February. Botti told Sporting Life:

‘Grendisar hasn’t stopped improving and loves the All Weather,

‘The plan has always been to run here [Winter Derby trial], go for the Winter Derby and then Good Friday.’

Complicit

Paul Cole’s Complicit has always been ear-marked for the Easter Classic, the trainer writing in his paulcole.co.uk blog that the horse ‘runs better on All Weather and has only been beaten once [at Lingfield, prior to the Winter Derby] when he ran on Good Friday last year where he was interfered with on the bend.’

Indeed, there was an element of misfortune about the charge’s forth place finish in this year’s Winter Derby too, completing in this position despite just being a length off Tryster, the eventual winner.

These four line up against Matthew Smith’s Shalaman, Rebellious Guest for George Margarson, Gary Moore’s Gaelic Silver and Roger Teal’s outsider Jack Of Diamonds.

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