Julie Camacho’s team has its sights set on the Midnite Sprint final following Germanic’s bounce-back win in a class two handicap at Newcastle on Saturday.
Germanic went into the notebook with a taking success in a six-furlong handicap at the course in November but failed to reproduce the same finishing burst when fading to ninth behind The Caltonian on AWC Trials Day.
Reappearing eight days later, the five-year-old had no issue with the drop back to five furlongs as he lengthened away to beat G1 performer Quinault by two lengths, with the handicapper elevating him 7lb to 99.
Steve Brown, husband and assistant to Julie Camacho, said: “Germanic has come out of Saturday really well. I need to finalise plans with his owner Niall [O’Keeffe] but it is more than likely that we will go straight to Finals Day now. He had a full campaign on the turf last year, so we planned to race him sparingly through the winter.
“It was great to see him bounce back from the run on Trials Day, which left us scratching our heads because he travelled best between the two and the one but did not deliver. He clearly had no problem with the drop back to five on Saturday, although Quinault needed the run and was over a trip short of his best while the other runners had to step up.
“The handicapper has had his say with a 7lb rise, which will make life harder because the sprint final is always one of the deepest races on Finals Day. I think the thing about this horse though is that, when he is good, he is good, and in his two wins this winter he has looked a level above the opposition. If he turns up on his game, he should be competitive.”
In the south of France at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Believer landed the Listed Grand Prix Riviera Cote d'Azur for trainer Gianluca Bietolini. The third and final leg of the middle distance Polytrack Challenge was won in 2024 by Hooking, who went on to finish third in the Easter Classic.
A dual winner on turf, Believer is an unknown quantity on the all-weather, with the five-year-old’s only other appearance in this sphere resulting in an impressive conditions race success at Deauville in December.
Caliban may have Good Friday ambitions as well after posting a near four-length verdict in an 11-furlong novice at Kempton Park. Andrew Balding’s four-year-old has a revised mark of 82 and will presumably try to climb the handicap between now and the end of the season.
Royal Ascot is reportedly the target for Objector following his 11-length success in an extended mile novice at Wolverhampton. Trained by George Scott, the son of Dark Angel has an opening mark of 90, having previously made a successful introduction at the course in December.
Billy Loughnane continues to dominate the all-weather champion jockey leaderboard with almost double the number of wins of his nearest challenger Luke Morris, while Tony Carroll is 10 clear of Ian Williams in the all-weather trainer standings.
