Ascension

This is a really eye-catching and very strong colt by top sire Dark Angel who has a lovely action and is trained in Newmarket by Roger Varian. 

He made his debut at Newbury and showed a lot sharper on the track than at home, jumping fast and over racing in the early stages, meaning that he struggled at the other end over 7f.  

He clearly learnt a lot from this and then won easily at Salisbury over 6f. His next run was in another 6f Novice, at Newcastle, and he once again stamped his authority on the race to win with something in hand. 

On his final appearance of the season at Newmarket he started favourite to win a very strong Nursery at the Dubai Future Champions Meetings, but missed the break and then met trouble in running when getting into gear a furlong out, finishing an unlucky fourth.

Ascension made an excellent start to his three year old career when finishing third in a 0-105 handicap at Sandown, at one stage looking the obvious winner before tiring up the Sandown hill. He was expected to go very close on his next run Newmarket over six furlongs but the race showed that sprinting is not his game and will run over distances of seven furlongs in the future, when surely this striking son of Dark Angel will be winning races again. Ascension indeed made it a winning re-appearance after being gelded, running a very good race at Newmarket on the soft ground. He came out of that race very well to make it two on the bounce when storming to victory at Ayr on Saturday 19th! His next run was a very respectable third place behind two good horses at Leicester. Roger was happy with his performance and thinks he is now ready to step up to a mile next season and aim for next year's Lincoln. With this objective in mind he is likely to be put away for winter now.