Bracken’s Laugh romps home in impressive Chelmsford strike

Bracken’s Laugh looks a colt bound for bigger and better things judged on a decisive victory in the Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions Stakes at Chelmsford.

A field of eight three-year-olds went to post for this one-mile contest, with Aidan O’Brien’s Royal Lodge Stakes third Capulet all the rage as the 8-13 favourite.

The Karl Burke-trained Cuban Tiger and John and Thady Gosden’s Orne, first and third in last week’s Listed Burradon Stakes on Good Friday, added further intrigue, but it was 9-1 shot Bracken’s Laugh who emerged much the best in the hands of Finley Marsh.

A winner on his Newbury debut in September before finishing fifth in the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud the following month, the Zoffany colt travelled nicely in the middle of the pack on this seasonal reappearance before quickening smartly in the straight to claim a two-and-three-quarter-length victory.

The front-running Orne boxed on for second, with Capulet a shade disappointing in third.

“I don’t think I’ve had many Group One runners, but he won last year in the Haynes, Hanson And Clark and I thought I’d give him a go in the Group One in France,” Hughes told Racing TV.

“As it turned out, we ended up on the wrong side of the track and the ground was very heavy and he just didn’t get home, but we felt he could be a Group One horse then, so this year starting off it was very important he didn’t have too hard a race first up and we’d learn a lot from it.

“I was really excited by the way he travelled. This horse would gallop with anything at home and I feel he’s a mile and a quarter horse and maybe not quite a mile and a half horse with the speed he shows at home.

“So, I was really looking forward to seeing him run over a mile to see how he’d travel on a better surface and he travelled immensely well and quickened up really good.

“I made a decision two months ago I would come here first, you just don’t have to get them quite as fit for the all-weather as you do for soft ground on the grass. I thought this would be a nice introduction and if he was placed today, I would have been happy as a stepping-stone towards Chester.

“I don’t feel he’s a Guineas horse or a Derby horse, so I’d like to go quietly, run in the Dee Stakes and then on to a Group Three at Royal Ascot over a mile and a quarter.

“I have a month until Chester and then I have another month until Royal Ascot, so the plan looks good at the moment and I hope we can pull it off.”