Burning Up has Group One options before season is out

Royal Lodge runner-up Burning Up could be set to test the waters at the highest level later this month, with Karl Burke considering an end-of-season outing either at home or abroad.

Previously unbeaten and making just his third career start at Newmarket last month, the son of Too Darn Hot found just the streetwise Aidan O’Brien-trained Haffner too good on quicker than ideal conditions on the Rowley Mile.

However, undeterred, the Spigot Lodge handler is prepared to step up in grade again in either Doncaster’s William Hill Futurity Trophy on October 24 or in Saint-Cloud the following day for France’s final Group One events for juveniles of the year.

Burke said: “Burning Up has come out of the Royal Lodge in great nick and I think he’s going to be a real nice horse. If it was slower ground I think you would have seen a slightly different result, it’s just plenty quick enough at Newmarket for the time of year.

“He could well turn up in a Group One in either France or Doncaster at the end of the month, but more importantly I think he’s going to be a really nice horse for next year.”

A day prior to Burning Up’s second, Light Of Dawn had narrowly failed to supplement her Prestige Stakes win in the Rockfel Stakes.

It was another strong showing from the daughter of Showcasing, who has finished no worse than third this term, and heads into winter quarters with connections hopeful she will become a Classic contender next season.

Burke went on: “We’ll put Light Of Dawn away for the year and aim her at a Guineas trail in the spring before hopefully a crack at a Guineas.

“I’m thinking preferably Newbury at this stage, but we’ll see how the winter goes and how she gets on.

“I’d be hopeful she stays a mile next year, but she’s not slow and quite exuberant as well.

“She’s a big, strong filly and I’m sure with another winter on her back she’ll get the mile. She’s grown a lot since her debut and she’s a lovely filly.

“Her form even when she has been beaten is absolutely rock solid, she’s only getting beat a length or two off the best ones.”