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 looked much sharper on the track than at home, jumping quickly and over racing in the early stages and struggled at the end of the race.

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. He 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! His next run was a very respectable third place behind two good horses at Leicester. Roger was happy with his performance and stepped him up to a mile next time out again at Leicester where he put in another consistent run and stayed on very well in heavy ground to come second. 

Ascension will now be put away for the winter with the 2021 Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster in mind.