Royal Ascot winner Big Evs set for Goodwood

Royal Ascot winner Big Evs is bound for the Qatar Goodwood Festival and a tilt at the Molecomb Stakes next, trainer Mick Appleby has reported.

The Blue Point colt lined up at 20-1 for the Windsor Castle Stakes at the royal meeting last week and broke his maiden in decisive style on his second career start, scoring under Jason Hart to defeat Aidan O’Brien’s 100-30 favourite Johannes Brahms by three lengths.

Stepping up to Group Three level at Goodwood’s headline meeting is next on the agenda, while a trip to Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York is also pencilled in for later in the season.

Appleby said: “I did quite fancy him because he worked well with Annaf (King’s Stand third) the Saturday before.

“I was pretty confident he would finish in the first three but I didn’t think he would win like that. Obviously he is a very good horse.

“I had plenty of messages of congratulations afterwards which I was very appreciative of. It is what we do it for and Royal Ascot is where everyone wants to have winners.

“He is more than likely to now go for the Molecomb at Goodwood. I think that is the most obvious target for him and then we will go from there.”

At York the two-year-old could stick to five furlongs for the Nunthorpe, but there is also a chance he could step up a furlong and take on the Gimcrack Stakes instead.

Appleby said: “We’ve said we will possibly look at the Nunthorpe afterwards but Goodwood is next on the agenda. We did half think about going for the Gimcrack at York after Goodwood as well.

“Whether he will get six furlongs I don’t know, but it didn’t look like he was stopping at Ascot.

“At York I think he probably would get six furlongs, but we will get Goodwood done first then make a decision which route we take after that.

“The owner has had a few offers on the table for him but he is not interested in selling him which is good to see.”

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