Bucanero Fuerte shows he still has the power

Adrian Murray’s Bucanero Fuerte bounced back to winning ways and out of retirement with a dominant display in the Sole Power Sprint Stakes at Naas.

A winner on the same card last year in the Lacken Stakes, he was on a retrieval mission here after finishing unplaced on his final three outings of the season, having been forced to miss Royal Ascot with a problem.

Those three defeats did come at the highest level, though, and back down in Group Three company, he was able to dominate.

With Ger Lyons’ Breeders’ Cup winner Magnum Force in the field and looking to give his trainer a four-timer on the card, Bucanero Fuerte looked to face stiff opposition.

However, Magnum Force was a rare Lyons runner who never looked like winning and he finished last of the seven runners.

On the other hand, Bucanero Fuerte, who was a Group One winner at two, was always going well in the hands of David Egan and when he asked him to put the race to bed a furlong out, he did just that, beating Powerful Nation by a length and three-quarters.

He had been retired to Tally-Ho Stud at the end of last season but failed to get any of his mares in foal.

“It was great for us to see him coming back but I suppose from a breeding point of view, it was disappointing,” said Murray.

“He’s really showed up today, we were on a fact-finding mission to see whether he was going to train on and for sure, he was brilliant.

“He’s only back six or eight weeks with us and you’d never think he was away at stud. He’s so cool and calm, we even said to David going out ‘just wake him up a little bit’ because he’s so relaxed.

“He finished out the race well, he galloped right to the line. They kind of caught him up a little bit a furlong out and then he kicked on again. He put plenty of daylight between them.

“Today was just to see how things would go. There is a race in Cork in three weeks’ time and he’ll be entered for the Nunthorpe. He’s not in Ascot.

“We’ll see after a couple of days how he comes out of the race and then make a plan from there.”