EXCITING four-year-old King Of Change is on course for a tilt at the Lockinge Stakes.
The Richard Hannon-trained colt ended last season with an impressive victory in the QEII at Ascot on Champions Day.
That was just his sixth career start and capped a successful campaign which also saw him finish second in the 2000 Guineas as a 66-1 shot.
The Group 1 Lockinge could be held on 30 May if racing gets the green light to resume, though it is likely to be staged at a different track to it’s usual home at Newbury.
Hannon told Racing TV: “We were thinking of starting him in the Group 2 mile at Sandown, which is now not going to take place, so we will go straight to the Lockinge and then the Queen Anne.
“He’s a Group 1 winner and that’s where he now has to go on a sort of permanent basis.”
Hannon continued: “I’m not sure how I got him beaten twice before the Guineas. It was a hell of a run there and his rating went from 82 to 117.
“We put him away after that, with this year in mind, and brought him back at the end of the season. This was always going to be his year. He didn’t surprise me by winning the QEII, and he did it very well. He’s a massive talent to look forward to.
”His early season races are obvious and then there you get the typical ‘are you going to go a mile and a quarter or mile and a half with him’ when the horse is doing nothing wrong over a mile.
“We’ve been talked into this several times in the past, with a whole lot of them such as Sky Lantern and Toronado, and it’s not gone well, but I am going to put him in the Arc at the owner’s request.
“You never know. He’s a clean-winded horse and is gentleman who doesn’t pull and isn’t keen. He will give himself every chance of staying.”
Hannon also provided an update on the high-class Threat, who is a 20-1 shot with William Hill for the 2000 Guineas.
He said: “I do think he’s a very good horse and he has matured mentally, which is what we wanted, and physically he has done well.
“There’s a queue every morning at his box to throw the tack on him and get out. All the jockeys seem pretty keen on his chances.”
