Kieran Shoemark is hopeful he has the right type of horse to play a major role in the Group 2 Bahrain International Trophy at Sakhir on Friday as Lead Artist bids to give John and Thady Gosden a first success in the valuable prize.
Having filled the runner-up spot with Turgenev, Global Giant and Israr in recent seasons, the team at Clarehaven Stables will be hoping to make it fourth time lucky when rising star Lead Artist takes on eleven high-class international performers in Bahrain on Friday afternoon.
The striking son of Dubawi has gone from strength to strength this season, winning the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in August before finding only multiple Group 1-winner Kinross too strong in the Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster a month later.
Testing conditions ruled him out of a first outing over a mile the Joel Stakes at Newmarket later that month, but Lead Artist quickly proved that stamina was no problem when coming home strongly to land the one-mile one-furlong Group 3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket in October.
Juddmonte's promising three-year-old will now tackle some seasoned travellers as he gears up for a crack at the $1 million prize, but Shoemark, who has ridden Lead Artist on all six of his starts to date, believes his mount has what it takes to be competitive in the Bahraini desert.
"I sat on him yesterday morning for the first time and he seems to have settled in really well," said Kieran Shoemark when speaking on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast. "He's in good order and has taken to the track well so it's all systems go.
"He's certainly maturing with each run, and I felt we learnt a lot at Newmarket last time. He's pretty adaptable, you can put him anywhere in the race. He's still slightly unfurnished but he's getting closer to the finished product, clearly progressive and I think we've got the right horse to take part in a race like this.
"He's always been a horse that hits a flat spot, and you have to ask him for his effort, he's always been like that at home. So, coming into the dip at Newmarket I thought if he doesn't stay at least we've learnt something. I wanted to get a real feel of him, and he delivered every question I asked of him, and I couldn't have been more pleased with him pulling up that day."
On possible race tactics, Shoemark added: "He's pretty good from the gates and I'd imagine we'll try to sit halfway. It's a pretty trappy ten furlongs around here because it runs downhill once you complete the back straight and you kind of springboard off that bend a bit.
"Although it's a good three furlong straight it doesn't take a lot of getting, you see horses here get off on the front end and take plenty of pegging back. You don't want to be too far away turning in and I think he has all the attributes, and his race style should be suited to running around here.
"He's one to look forward to and still relatively lightly raced with an unexposed and progressive profile."
Lead Artist is among five British and Irish-trained horses in this year's Bahrain International Trophy, with last season's hero Spirit Dancer bidding to defend his crown alongside Alfaila, Point Lonsdale and Charlie Appleby's Arlington Million winner Nations Pride, who Shoemark pinpoints as a horse that 'will take all the beating'.
"It takes a good horse to win this race. A horse like Nation's Pride is a well-seasoned traveller with incredible form that will take all the beating."
