Impressive Display from Bracken's Laugh in the Woodford Reserve Cardinal Stakes

In a thrilling renewal of the Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions Stakes at Chelmsford City, it was Bracken’s Laugh who decisively claimed victory having brushed aside a competitive field and hinting at a promising future for the colt.

A winner on his Newbury debut in September before finishing fifth in the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud the following month, Saturday’s victor was fourth choice for the race at 9/1. The promising colt travelled nicely in the middle of the pack before quickening smartly in the straight, taking the lead with a furlong remaining and claiming a two-and-three-quarter-length victory.

The race, the finale of the European Road to the Kentucky Derby series, had attracted a strong field with the Aidan O’Brien trained Capulet sent off the 8/13 favourite. The Royal Lodge Stakes third was given every chance by Ryan Moore but had no answer to Bracken’s Laugh who displayed a smart change of gear to leave his rivals trailing.

The Karl Burke-trained Cuban Tiger and John and Thady Gosden’s front-running Orne, first and third in the week before’s Listed Burradon Stakes at Newcastle, added further intrigue, but it was the son of Zoffany who emerged much the best in the hands of Finley Marsh.

Trained by Richard Hughes, whose yard is in tremendous form told Racing TV: “I thought I’d give him a go in that Group 1 at France and, as it turned out, we ended up on the wrong side of the track a little bit and the ground was very heavy and he just didn’t quite get home but we felt he could be a Group 1 horse then.”

“I was really excited by the way he travelled. This horse would gallop with anything at home. I feel he’s a mile and a quarter horse and maybe not quite a mile and a half horse with the speed he shows at home so I was really looking forward to see him run over a mile on a better surface to see how he travelled and he travelled immensely well and quickened up really good.”

“I made a decision two months ago that we’d come here first. You don’t have to get them quite as fit on the All-Weather as soft ground on the grass so I thought this was a nice introduction and the perfect race for him. If he’d been placed, I’d have been really happy as a stepping stone towards Chester.”

As of Saturday afternoon, Bracken’s Laugh was unlikely to be sent to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby on May 4, however looks a colt bound for big things judged on a decisive victory. Hughes explained his thorough plan for the Bracken’s Laugh’s May and June campaigns “I don’t feel he’s a Guineas horse or a Derby horse so I’d like to go quietly and run at the Dee Stakes and then a Group 3 at Royal Ascot over a mile and a quarter.”

“I didn’t want to throw him in the Guineas, have a hard race and find out you’re not good enough; I don’t think he’s able for that yet, his size and build, even this year he’s put on 13 kilos more than last year. He ran off 500 kilos today and last year he was 465 or 470 going to Newbury so he’s developed really well. I have a month until Chester and have another month until Royal Ascot so the plan looks good at the moment; I hope we can pull it off.”