Juddmonte International target for Elarqam

The Mark Johnston-trained Elarqam is set to receive a supplementary entry for next week’s Juddmonte International at York’s Ebor Festival.

The four-year-old has sparkled this season, winning three of his five starts, most recently when fending off Addeybb to land the Group 2 York Stakes.

He won that contest by more than three-lengths and connections are keen to take a stab at top-level success on the Knavesmire with the Sheikh Hamdan-owned Frankel colt.

“When Sheikh Hamdan was here for Goodwood he said that as long as Mark and his team were happy with the horse this week, he thought we would probably supplement,” said Angus Gold, racing manager to the owner.

“The answer is he’s 90 per cent certain to be supplemented. Obviously it’s a lot of money (£75,000) and we need to confirm with Mark nearer the day, but as of this morning they were happy with him.

“His form was given a nice boost at the weekend by Addeybb. Elarqam was visually impressive at York, I can’t believe Addeybb quite ran his race, but that’s just my opinion.”

Elarqam could face the likes of Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner Crystal Ocean (5/4 to win the Juddmonte) and St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up King Of Comedy (3/1) at York.

“There’s no Enable, but there’s Crystal Ocean, who is an outstanding horse, and King Of Comedy has always looked like he wanted this trip and that’s without Aidan (O’Brien) joining in, let alone anybody else. It’s always a very good race,” Gold added.

“It will be tougher than anything he has encountered since the Guineas. Nobody is saying for a second he will win it, but on the other hand he’s entitled to run.”

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