Chinta To Fly Sprint Flag In Nunthorpe

It is asking a great deal of a juvenile who has raced only twice in his life to take on the cream of the world’s five furlong sprinters at the highest level on a major stage, but that is exactly what Kevin Ryan will do when he sends the Royal Ascot winner Bapak Chinta into battle against some of the best known speedsters in Europe in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York’s Ebor meeting on August 19, writes Elliot Slater.

To be fair, juveniles have a pretty good record in the race, the handful of runners to have taken up the challenge in recent decades having produced two winners; Richard Hannon’s brilliant ‘Pocket Rocket’ Lyric Fantasy winning in 1992, and the precocious John Best-trained Kingsgate Native repeating the feat back in 2007 under Jimmy Quinn. Those following the York Ebor betting should bear this in mind.

Bapak Chinta will receive all the weight-for-age allowances and if he arrives at the Betfair York Ebor 2011 meeting having progressed again from his win at the royal meeting where he showed tremendous pace to land the Group2 Norfolk Stakes from Boomerang Bob, then he will not be out of place in the line-up and could give a very good account of himself.

The difficulty for punters is in convincing themselves that a two-year-old colt with very little experience will be up to handling the hurly-burly of one of the fastest and most competitive sprints on the planet, but Ryan would surely not even be considering taking up the challenge if he felt that the son of Speightstown wasn’t made of the right material.

Bookmakers certainly respect the chance of Philip Makin’s mount who is currently a best priced 8/1 third favourite behind last year’s winner Sole Power (6/1f), and the July Cup runner-up Bated Breath (7/1).