THE phone may be about to ring again for Andy Oliver’s impressive first-time-out winner Sounds Like A Plan after his form received a key boost at the Curragh this week, but his trainer insists his current focus remains on a tilt at the Gain Railway Stakes on Irish Derby weekend.
Owner Francis Campbell’s two-year-old created quite the impression when landing a six-furlong maiden at Navan by three lengths on debut last month, getting the better of Tunbridge Wells, a brother to Group 1 winner Blackbeard trained by Aidan O’Brien. That maiden form was enhanced when the Ballydoyle colt - described as one “in the Royal Ascot picture” by O’Brien - impressed in landing a Curragh maiden on Wednesday evening.
Oliver, who saddled a two-year-old Curragh maiden winner of his own with 50/1 shot Orchidaceae in a maiden on Guineas weekend, is looking forward to a shot at Group 2 company with his Navan winner.
“We’re retaining him at the moment,” Oliver told The Irish Field. “There’s a possibility he’ll be entered in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot but he is entered in the Railway Stakes, so that would be our thinking at the moment.
“Obviously you don’t like to read too much into the form, but we watched the Curragh race with interest and Aidan’s horse did it nicely. Hopefully that leaves us in good shape.”