Charlie Appleby feels it is far too early to write off Pinatubo as a one-season wonder and expects him to improve from his Royal Ascot run.
The Godolphin-owned colt was expected to be one of the stars of the 2020 Flat season after a remarkable debut campaign in which he won six out of six races, including signing off with victory in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
However, this year hasn’t gone to plan for Pinatubo, returning with a disappointing third place in the 2,000 Guineas before finishing runner-up to Palace Pier in Saturday’s St James’s Palace Stakes.
Appleby spotted plenty of reasons to be cheerful from his one-length loss though and warned punters not to overlook him going forward ahead of his next date, the Qatar Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on July 29.
He told the Racing Post: “It’s disappointing to get beat again, but he travelled and we saw the Pinatubo we saw last year, for sure.
“As always we’ll get him back and speak to the connections. Everyone likes to put the gun to people’s head after the event, but the Sussex is an easy mile there and we’ve seen what he can do around that track. That’s always an option.
“He’s still a class animal at the end of the day and we’re not going to write him off yet. You can see when he walked in he had given it everything.”
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