PRESCOTT AND STEVENS HOPING FOR DUBAI FUTURE CHAMPIONS DAY SUCCESS

Sir Mark Prescott and Olly Stevens, two trainers from opposite ends of the experience spectrum, were at the Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket this morning to promote Dubai Future Champions’ Day – Newmarket Racecourses’ autumn highlight, which will take place at the Rowley Mile this Saturday, October 12. Prescott’s Dubai Future Champions Day hopes rest with Pallasator, a three-time winner this season who had been allocated stall seven in the Betfred Cesarewitch, a two and a quarter mile handicap which has attracted a full field of 36 runners to compete for its £250,000 worth of prize money. Prescott began training in 1970 and has long coveted victory in the Betfred Cesarewitch, one of Britain’s most historic races which was first run in 1839. "The race I would most like to win is the Derby, but in the meantime the Cesarewitch would be handy,” Prescott said. "I have been making a very poor job of winning it thus far, although I have certainly been trying. I’ve had five beaten favourites and I thought that it would take an act of parliament to stop Alleluia from winning in 2001, but she fractured her pelvis with two furlongs to run. "Pallasator has got enough class to win the Cesarewitch but he is not easy, he is not straightforward, and whether he would stay two and a quarter miles is very much in doubt. "He always works well and is not a slow stayer but he would be vulnerable to those who really stay and grind it out. "He can get very stewed up before a race and will go down to the start with a pony on Saturday. Going the full two and a quarter mile race trip down to the start is a very long way for a horse who gets on edge.” Still in his first year with a training licence, Stevens will be represented by Green Door in the 13-runner £209,900 Group 1 Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes (6f) and by both Lightning Thunder and Hoku in the nine-runner £70,000 Group 2 Vision.ae Rockfel Stakes (7f). "We always thought that Green Door was a very nice horse,” Stevens said. "He lost his form after winning here in May but now it has come back.” "I never expected to have a Group 1 runner this year, the whole plan was just to make a modest start and work on building a good team.” "Lightning Thunder was unbeaten going into the Oh So Sharp Stakes, where I think that she was beaten by an exceptional filly in Miss France. The other horse to have been beaten by Miss France won the [Group 1] Prix Marcel Boussac on Sunday so the form stands up fairly well.” "This will be Lightning Thunder’s last run this year - we have always seen her as a potential Guineas filly.” "Hoku has come back from Paris [where she finished eighth in the Marcel Boussac] in very good shape but she would need a lot of rain.” About the Dubai Future Champions Day The best two-year-old raceday in the world, Dubai Future Champions Day is the glittering highlight of Newmarket’s autumn season and boasts prizemoney of almost £1.13 million. Six Group races, including two Group 1s, plus one of the season’s great handicaps, the Betfred Cesarewitch, will light up an afternoon of racing to remember on Saturday October 12th. Advance tickets are available now at the discounted rate of £20.70 for the Grandstand & Paddock and £36 for Premier, with bigger discounts for bookings of 10 or more tickets and free entry for all accompanied children under the age of 18.   To book, visit www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk or call 0844 579 3010.   For further information please contact: Michael Prosser, head of racing, East region for the Jockey Club, 07802 844 578 or Tony Rushmer, racing PR manager, Newmarket Racecourses, 07702 579 382