Urban Aspect looks a black-type horse in the making.
Cityscape’s only two runners on Friday both returned winners and the first of the pair, Urban Aspect, will have gone into plenty of notebooks as a future black-type performer.
Bred by Emma Balding at Kingsclere Stud and trained by her son Andrew for the Kingsclere Racing Club in the famous colours of Paul Mellon, three-year-old Urban Aspect has raced just four times, finishing third on debut in June and then notching three consecutive victories.
Friday’s success came over a mile on his handicap debut off a mark of 93, beating a decent field in some style to take a valuable York Handicap worth more than £43,000 to the winner.
“There’s more to come,” said jockey Oisin Murphy as he dismounted, and Urban Aspect has the pedigree to back up such claims as he is from a family that as served Kingsclere Stud well. His dam Casual Glance was a listed-placed winner on the track and is a half-sister to the Group winners Passing Glance and Hidden Meadow, while Urban Aspect’s half-brother Look My Way is already a treble winner on the Flat now showing excellent form over hurdles.
Later that day, the Mark Tompkins-trained Roof Garden saw off a William Haggas hotpot at Chelmsford to record his first victory for his owner Sarabex. Bred by the Windmill Farm Partnership, the May-born gelding is out of the Pivotal mare Celebrity, a winner over six furlongs at two and from the family of Excellent Art.