Newmarket’s July Cup has been highlighted as the main summer target for Kinross, where he will be tasked with providing Frankie Dettori with victory in the only British Group One to elude him so far.
The Ralph Beckett-trained six-year-old thrived in the second half of the 2022 season, embarking on a four-race winning streak in the hands of the Italian – which included victories in the Prix de la Foret and British Champions Sprint – before the run came to an end with a brave third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Kinross has started off in Haydock’s John Of Gaunt Stakes for the past two campaigns, but connections have decided to delay his return until Royal Ascot this time around, before moving on to Newmarket’s July Course in a bid to land a signature blow during Dettori’s season-long swansong.
“Kinross has wintered really well,” said Jamie McCalmont, racing manager for the owner, Marc Chan.
“He has come out of a hard end-of-season campaign in great form and we will be concentrating on a latter-half of the year campaign with him again.
“He will start off at Royal Ascot and I think both the trainer and jockey are keen to try to win the July Cup. That is the one Group One race I think that Frankie hasn’t won in England.
“That is the major target for now and then after that, do we try to stretch him out to a mile?”
He went on: “He can’t run in the Jacques Le Marois because geldings can’t run in that race, while we know he loves Goodwood. If the ground was to his liking at Goodwood, I could easily see him running in the Sussex Stakes. But for now he isn’t going to run until Ascot.”
It will be top-table assignments only for Kinross this season, with his 2023 journey set to conclude at Sha Tin on December 10, where the son of Kingman will be aimed at representing his locally-based owner in the Hong Kong Mile.
“He’s now a six-year-old and Marc quite rightly thinks we should only run in Group One races and not waste our bullets,” continued McCalmont.
“I think Hong Kong is more than likely and that is kind of really why we are starting off later in the season.
“With Marc living in Hong Kong, he naturally would love to have a horse run on Longines Day and Hong Kong is very much in our plans. It would definitely be the mile race, there’s no doubt about that, but it a long way away from now.”
