3 minute read

The James Tate duo of Iconic Moment and New Definition are set to cross paths again in the Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions Stakes at Chelmsford on Saturday.

The pair faced one another in the Listed Spring Cup Stakes at Lingfield earlier in the month, where Iconic Moment maintained his undefeated record to prevail by a short head from his stablemate.

A winner of two prior novices, Iconic Moment is a lightly-raced son of Harry Angel who looked green during his Listed triumph, but has obvious ability that Tate hopes will be enhanced by a step up to a mile – and transfer to turf in time.

He said: "He's a horse with a lot of talent and potential, he hasn't quite got it all together yet but despite that he is three from three.

"We think stepping him up to the mile is going to help him so that will be interesting for both of them on Saturday because they've both only raced as far as seven furlongs so far.

"So far he has only run on the all-weather, but he's certainly bred to run on grass and goes nicely on grass.

"The question is what level is he going to be, but I'd like to think he'd be running in Group races over seven furlongs or a mile on the turf hopefully."

New Definition is a more experienced horse and will make his 13th start at the weekend, with his pedigree familiar to Tate as he trained both the dam, Second Generation, and the grand dam, El Manati.

Both were good quality sprinters and the colt is by Invincible Spirit, leaving the trainer pleasantly surprised by how the three-year-old has handled a step up in distance.

He said: "It's been a bit of surprise that's he's getting the distance because he's from a family I know well, I trained his dam to win a five-furlong Listed sprint and I trained his grand dam to just get touched off in the Cornwallis.

"He's by Invincible Spirit so you'd have thought he'd be all about speed, but he does seems to have stepped up his form a little bit in his last two runs over seven (furlongs) so this run over a mile will be interesting, and I'd be pretty confident he'll be every bit as good on the grass."

Tate has also used the all-weather to bring on the promising four-year-old Mount Athos, a wide-margin winner of two novice events last year.

Taking a Thirsk contest in June by five lengths and a Kempton event in October by the same distance, the bay will now return to the latter track over course and distance on Wednesday rather than take up a Listed Cammidge Trophy entry at Doncaster on Saturday.

"We did toy with the idea of putting him in at the deep end in that Doncaster race, but by the looks of the forecast it is going to be pretty soft and there'd be a lot of unknowns about that," said Tate.

"We've decided to stick with what we know he's good at, he won over course and distance at Kempton by five lengths on his last start and he looks to have improved over the winter so we're very hopeful for Wednesday.

"We'd like to think that he's a Pattern horse, but he obviously needs to prove that on the track.

"We've a few nice ones this year, I hope, but we'll find out a bit more about them when we run them against everyone else's nice ones!"