Haggas happy with Newmarket day out for Economics

William Haggas was pleased having watched his stable star Economics come through a racecourse gallop with his exalted stablemate Dubai Honour at a windswept Newmarket.

Last year’s Dante and Irish Champion Stakes winner has been on the sidelines all season, but Haggas had raised the hope of an appearance at Ascot on Champions Day later this month, with this gallop seen as vital in his quest to make that Group One assignment.

Heading into the dip a furlong out, Economics – last seen running in the Champion Stakes 12 months ago – was urged by Ted Durcan to take up the running from lead horse Irish Admiral and was followed through by Dubai Honour, a Group One winner in his own right.

Economics did not need to be hard ridden to maintain an advantage, but will have benefited greatly from the day out. Haggas said: “He was a bit rusty, but he moved well and finished off well and it was good.

“I was hoping there would be a bit more of a crowd here to gee him up, but everyone stayed inside, I would normally do this kind of thing at 6am when no one is awake. I wanted to get a little bit of adrenaline into him so hopefully it has done the job.

“We’re trying to get him to Ascot and this is part of the process and I suppose he will be doing another piece of work Thursday or Friday and then we’ll know if he is another step closer, but that has gone as well as we could have hoped for.

“Ascot is a big, prestigious race so we would like to get him there if we can but he needs to run properly, there’s no point running him there just for a day out, we can do that anywhere. We’ll do the first hurdle if we can and if not then work out what’s next.

“There’s a big race in Bahrain (International Trophy) which the owner looks after which is obviously a big factor and there’s a little Listed race (James Seymour Stakes, November 1) here in November which we could do, but that would make Bahrain difficult and I’m not sure I want to do that, so we’ll see.”