Tom Clover is excited by new recruit Al Nayyir, who opens a new chapter in a colourful career as a live outsider in an open renewal of the £250,000 Group 2 Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup at York on Friday.

Just months after last year’s breakthrough first Group-race win with Rogue Millennium in Royal Ascot’s Duke Of Cambridge Stakes Newmarket trainer Clover suffered a massive blow when the filly’s owners The Rogues Gallery removed all of their horses, and so 2024 has become something of a rebuilding year.

It’s a case of so far so good, and there are some nice prospects to look forward to amongst the youngsters, but the one-time Godolphin runner Al Nayyir, who has done all of his winning so far in Dubai and France, could be the short-term fix Clover needs to get him back onto the bigger stages more immediately.

For while he has yet to win in better than Listed company, Al Nayyir ran well in Riyadh in January and had stayers of the calibre of Trawlerman, Giavellotto and Coltrane among those behind when runner-up to the classy Tower Of London in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan in March.

“It’s great to have him in the stable and he’s an exciting horse,” enthused Clover.

“I’ve trained for the owner previously and he came a couple of months ago. He’s only the second Dubawi I’ve had in the yard and the other was Rogue Millennium [sold for 1,650,000 gns last December, before the fallout with the owners]. He’s typical of Dubawi and is a very good looking horse. He stands out at evening stables and when you see him out with the string in the morning. He’s  got a lovely Dubawi head and he’s an absolute gent.”

Reflecting positively on what was a devastating blow professionally speaking, Clover said: “It’s never ideal when you lose 28 horses in March, and our prize money is down on last year, but we’ve still had 22 winners and you have to focus on the future.

“We are fortunate to train for some lovely owners and we are lucky to have some exciting young prospects coming through. This is a rebuilding year, and hopefully we can build a good platform for the future. Al Nayyir is six, but we all know how those Dubawis improve with age.”

Friday’s field is headed by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Point Lonsdale, who was a runaway winner of Chester’s Ormonde Stakes and has plenty of solid Group 1 form to his name, and the Willie Mullins six-year-old Vauban, a top-class dual purpose horse who has a return to Australia for the Melbourne Cup on his agenda.

The Goodwood Cup third Gregory, representing rising force Wathnan Racing and the stable that won the Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup three times with Stradivarius, is pressing the pair at the top of the market, and the field also includes Quickthorn, who was a stunning 14-length winner of the 2022 running, and the fast-improving three-year-old Align The Stars, for whom success here would open the door to a tilt at next month’s St Leger.

Al Nayyir clearly faces a toughish task, but Clover nevertheless feels that he has plenty going for him and so he is hopeful of a big run.

“These Group races are all hard to win, but there’s no Kyprios and so it could have been a deeper field,” he said. “He looks in good shape and we are looking forward to it.

“He’s won on easier ground but we think that top of the ground is ideal for him and that going left handed at York will suit too. It was fast ground and two miles going left-handed when he ran to an extremely good level in Dubai, and it’s a similar scenario at York.

“It’s good to have someone with Luke Morris’ experience on him, and Luke came and rode him on Saturday when they did a lovely bit of work on the Cambridge Road. His fast work has been quite speedy. He’s not a slow horse at all and he’s shaping up really nicely.”