Jim Boyle happy to take Mill Reef leap with Into The Sky

Jim Boyle is “very excited” ahead of Into The Sky’s bid for Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes glory at Newbury on Saturday.

The Starman colt defied his odds of 80-1 on debut when storming to a seven-and-a-half-length success in a maiden at the Berkshire track last month.

“The odds weren’t a surprise to me because he was a first time two-year-old of mine in a decent Newbury maiden,” Boyle said about Into The Sky’s debut. “Often they would have been 200-1 in a race like that.

“I’d be lying if I went there expecting him to bolt up like he did, we thought he’d go and run a nice race and were sending him to the track to let him see what he could do.

“We were very pleasantly surprised with the manner of his victory.”

He now steps up in class and heads the market, alongside Charlie Appleby’s Words Of Truth, ahead of the Group Two contest.

The South Hatch handler added: “It’s a massive step up.

“The way he won, pretty soon after that we were thinking of aiming our sights pretty high with him instead of the novice route, and the Mill Reef looked an obvious target based on what he’d done at Newbury first time out.

“It’s a clearly a step back in trip by half a furlong, but he showed good pace on his debut and you’d like to think he’d cope with six furlongs no problem at all.

“But he will be up against a high-class of field and he’ll have to pull out more to win a Mill Reef on his second start.

“Hugely exciting to have a horse with the potential to be aiming there and be head of the market, just very excited at what he can do.

“Newbury is a very fair track and there won’t be many horses that wouldn’t go round Newbury so I’m not sure it would gives us a huge advantage, but I guess course form is always good to have in the bank.”

Appleby’s joint-favourite is hoping to complete a hat-trick after an impressive novice win at Newmarket last time out.

“Words Of Truth brings a nice profile into this, having won his last two starts, and conditions should suit,” he told Godolphin’s official website.

“He has a bit to find on the ratings, but he is from a family that we know well and six furlongs is his optimum trip.

“We are hopeful he can put up a decent performance and be competitive in this grade.”

Kevin Ryan’s Rock On Thunder has black type form after finishing as runner-up in both the Rose Bowl here in July and the Group Two Gimcrack on the Knavesmire on his last run, and connections are confident.

“The form of his Gimcrack run is bang up there and we do feel he’d appreciate a little bit of juice in the ground,” assistant trainer Adam Ryan said.

“Obviously you don’t know until you run on it, but he goes there in great order and his form speaks for itself. We’re very happy with him.”

Watcha Snoop, trained by Hugo Palmer, looks to build on his Ascot victory last time out and David Simcock’s Rydale Frosty returns to six furlongs after two shorter sprint starts.

Simon and Ed Crisford have Flying Comet, Gold Queen Kindly goes for Karl Burke and Andrew Balding’s Sands Of Spain complete the eight-runner field.