All week the Timeform team will be providing a Flat horse to follow. Adam Houghton is first with a potential Derby contender for Sir Michael Stoute.
Owner Saeed Suhail had his blue and yellow colours carried to victory in the 2003 Derby by Kris Kin, described by his trainer Sir Michael Stoute as one of the laziest horses he had handled.
The fact that Kris Kin showed so little at home prompted Kieren Fallon, who rode him for the first time at Epsom, to pass him over when he won his Derby trial, the Dee Stakes at Chester as the 20/1 outsider of four, and his lack of sparkle on the gallops also meant his name was missing at the Derby acceptance stage.
Fortunately for connections, Kris Kin’s Chester win prompted them to come up with the £90,000 fee to add him to the Derby field at the late supplementary stage.
Stoute and Suhail might have another Derby contender on their hands with Desert Crown. It took Kris Kin two goes to win his maiden late in the year as a two-year-old, but Desert Crown went one better, winning first time up at Nottingham in early-November at odds of 11/1.
The Stoute two-year-olds are not known for being ready to win on their debuts and he was only of only three such winners in 2021, one of the others sent off at 25/1. Desert Crown could hardly have made a better impression, travelling fluently close to the pace and then storming clear when Richard Kingscote produced him to lead a furlong out to win by five and a half lengths from Schmilsson.
The timefigure added substance to the performance, with Desert Crown winning in a time more than two seconds quicker than the winner of the other division of the maiden.
Desert Crown is a half-brother to four winners who, despite all being by the same sire – Archipenko – have won over a variety of trips, including the year-older Cu Chulainn, successful at 11 furlongs last season. His lightly-raced dam won at a mile but with Nathaniel as his sire stamina shouldn’t be a worry for Desert Crown at three.
The first name that comes to mind with Nathaniel as a sire is, of course, Enable. Rightly so, as she stands out among his offspring on ratings, though curiously all five of Nathaniel’s Group or Grade 1 winners to date have been fillies, including last season’s Nassau Stakes winner Lady Bowthorpe.
Maybe Desert Crown will be the one to redress the balance somewhat and provide him a high-class son.
(Adam Houghton - Senior Content Editor)
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