William Haggas is looking forward to seeing Economics return to the track in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville on Thursday.
William Haggas' colt carried a penalty to success in impressive fashion at Newbury before running out a scintillating six-length winner of the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York in mid-May.
Connections subsequently resisted the temptation to head to Epsom on the back of his commanding Derby trial success, a tactic the team will be hoping pays dividends when he returns to the track in France on Thursday.
"We looked at the York Stakes at the end of July, but he wasn't ready for that, so it was either this or the Juddmonte and we preferred to have a go against the three-year-olds," explained Haggas on Sky Sports Racing.
"He's still relatively inexperienced. As promising as he might look, he's still only run three races in his life, so we thought the Juddmonte might be quite a hard ask for a horse first time out for a while.
"He's a pretty nice horse, I haven't been looking very hard to see how good he is because that's not the way we like to do it, but he does everything very easily, he's pretty fit and I'm very much looking forward to getting him back on track – I can't wait really."
The son of Night Of Thunder could be set for a tilt at the top-level should he satisfactorily pass Thursday's assignment. He holds entries in both the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and the Champion Stakes at Ascot, but Haggas is keen to focus on the immediate task at hand.
He continued: "I tend not to want to predict what might happen later on or where he might go, I want to get this first hurdle out of the way, but he's in every smart race at a mile and a quarter that you can imagine, and he'll be aiming at one of those if he's good enough."
Whilst there is little question mark over his ability, William Haggas' rising star did leave cause for concern for some when returning to the winners' enclosure with blood in his nose after winning the Dante Stakes. However, Haggas was quick to explain that he believed a bang to the head in the stalls was the cause of the incident.
"We think that's what happened, but we take no chances with him obviously," said the trainer.
"We had a few issues in the spring with that sort of thing, but he's absolutely fine and we scope him every time he works, and we haven't seen a trace of blood, so that doesn't concern us at the moment.
"What concerns me personally is how tight the ground might be for him (at Deauville). He's a great big horse and it's going to be quick ground, but he's got to run so we'll need to get on with it.
"He's a beautiful-looking horse and everything he has done so far has pleased us. He had a gallop at the racecourse at Newmarket about 10 days ago and he looked really good, so I'm really happy with him."
Fellow British challengers include Ed Walker's Almaqam, who moves up to ten furlongs for the first time having not been disgraced when sixth in a red-hot Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Brian Meehan's Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes winner Jayarebe.
Paddy Power make Economics their even-money market leader for the French Group 2, with the Andre Fabre-trained Bright Picture next in the betting at 3/1.
