Winter Derby: Sean Levey says Fancy Man is ready to take on Lingfield big guns Lord North and Alenquer | Racing News

Sean Levey knows what it takes to win the Betway Winter Derby. He accomplished the feat four years ago on Master The World and hopes to emulate that dramatic victory in Saturday’s stellar renewal at Lingfield Park, live on Sky Sports Racing.

Levey partners Richard Hannon’s smart colt Fancy Man, who announced himself a leading contender for the season’s most prestigious race by impressing in the Listed Trial over the same course and distance earlier this month.

“He’s come on for that run,” says Levey, who also won a one-mile-and-four-furlong handicap on the gelding at the Surrey track in September. “I sat on him the other day and he breezed well. He’s ready for this and it’ll be a good test of where he is in terms of future targets.”

Despite that up-beat gallops report, Levey is realistic about the challenge he faces in a strong line-up for the £110,000 showpiece.

“He looked the one they’d all have to beat in the Winter Derby after winning the trial so impressively, but I didn’t expect to be coming up against horses of the calibre of Lord North and Alenquer,” he admits.

John and Thady Gosden’s dual Group One winner Lord North is rated a whole stone superior to Levey’s mount, yet takes him on off level weights, while William Haggas’s Royal Ascot winner Alenquer has 6lb in hand.

“You look at their achievements and the ratings they bring into the race and think that if we finish third we’ve run well.

“Lord North has won at the top level in Dubai and won a Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. He’s a top class horse who’s entitled to win on Saturday, but we all know racing isn’t like that,” he reasons.

“Fancy Man has that run under his belt and proved himself at the track in the process. He’s going to have to improve again if those two run up to somewhere near their marks but he’s open to a lot of improvement.

“By contrast, Lord North hasn’t run for almost a year and Alenquer returns to the track for the first time since the Arc in October. Both are entitled to be ring rusty and won’t be fully wound up. They haven’t encountered Lingfield before, either.”

Levey believes that Michael Pescod’s Fancy Man – a bargain buy at 30,000 euros as a yearling – is equipped to adapt to any circumstances on Saturday, whether it’s a truly run race or not. “Classy horses usually go a good gallop which will be ideal for my horse,” he adds. “He travels beautifully through his races and has that great blend of speed and stamina.

“He’s won over one-mile-and-four-furlongs so a strong tempo will suit him, but he showed us in the trial that he can cope with a slowly run race just as effectively.

“I was worried about the slow pace initially as I thought he’d be found wanting when it mattered, but I gave him a squeeze early to compensate and he picked up really smartly.

“He wasn’t doing that last year – it was a weakness – but he showed us more at Lingfield in the way he finished off his race. He’s a big horse who is probably just coming into his own physically as a four-year-old.”

Levey compares the son of Pride Of Dubai favourably to his 2018 Winter Derby hero Master The World, the David Elsworth-trained grey who also won two Listed Churchill Stakes and finished second in an Easter Classic at Lingfield.

“He was a well-balanced horse who travelled strongly, too, but only just got the ten furlongs,” he recalls. “Elsie had him at the top of his game back then, but Fancy man is a younger horse than he was at the same stage and has the foundations to be even better.”

If he’s fighting out the finish at the weekend, Levey will be hoping to avoid the kind of trouble in running that threatened to deny Master The World the Group Three crown.

“Jamie Spencer beat us a head on David Simcock’s Mr Owen but took us badly right near the line. I was confident going into the stewards’ room that I’d be awarded the race and he deserved it.

“Whatever happens this time I just hope we can stay out of trouble.”