Chris Hayes has described Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s 2019 Epsom Derby runner-up Madhmoon as a “million dollars” for his campaign as a four-year-old this season.
Racing in the UK remains suspended until the coronavirus threat subsides but the Irish jockey is upbeat in renewing his partnership with the Kevin Prendergast-trained son of Dawn Approach.
If racing resumes as scheduled in Ireland, Madhmoon will run in the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh on May 4. His next target would be the Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 24.
“I've sat on him three or four times since he came back in and he looks a million dollars," Hayes told racingpost.com.
“I think at this stage of the year he looks physically better and has filled out nicely.
“Obviously we won't know if he's improved until we're racing but to the eye, he seems to have done well. In his swinging canters he's given me a good feel.
“Hopefully for everyone's sake we're back racing. In these difficult times, he's almost a ray of light to look forward to at the end of the tunnel – you need a flagship horse like him as a rider.”
Hayes, who enjoyed his best ever season in terms of prize money in Ireland last year, rode a double on the opening day of the Flat season at Naas before racing was called off to reduce the impact of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Godolphin’s Wild Card makes his Group 3 debut in the rescheduled March Stakes over nine furlongs at Nakayama, Japan, on Tuesday.
The six-year-old has won or placed on 10 of his 12 career starts for Japanese trainer Tetsuya Kimura.
He won his most recent start by a length and a quarter in Hanshin’s Listed Betelgeuse Stakes in December.
“Wild Card is absolutely deserving of what will be his first ever run in a Group race,” Harry Sweeney, president of Godolphin in Japan, told godolphin.com.
“He is now a six-year-old and has won six of his 12 career starts to date. Additionally, he has placed four times and has racetrack earnings of more than one million dollars (Dh3.67m).
“He has run exclusively on dirt and all his wins have been between 1,600 and 1,800 metres, so neither the surface nor the distance will be a concern."
Hiroshi Kitamura, who has ridden the horse on six previous occasions, will be in the saddle on Tuesday.
