Racing: Reject Ulundi aims for rich pickings in Million

One of Harry Enfield's comic creations is the gormless bobble-hatted youth who runs aimlessly along in front of an ever-changing backdrop eulogising about random topics. Paul Webber and David Heath, trainer and owner of Ulundi, can probably empathise with him. I mean, horses, they're just brilliant, aren't they?

Ulundi was, not so long ago, a prospect for the Champion Hurdle. But, as for the Paul Whitehouse character, the scene has rapidly shifted. Next week, the seven-year-old gelding is taking his connections to one of Flat racing's prestige occasions, the Arlington Million in Chicago, with its eponymous dollar purse. The heady target was confirmed yesterday after Ulundi performed satisfactorily in a workout under Richard Hughes at Paul Cole's Whatcombe gallops.

Webber, whose stables near Banbury, are largely jumping-orientated, said: "It was just an easy piece but though the ground was a bit softer than ideal for the horse Richard was very pleased with him." Ulundi's rise to grace has been remarkable. A son of Rainbow Quest bred by Khaled Abdullah, he was banished from Andre Fabre's yard to the Newmarket July auction as an unraced, undersized and perceived talent-free three-year-old, whence he joined Lady Herries' string at a cost of just 5,500 guineas. He was gelded and Hobdayed and eventually made it to a racecourse at the age of four, when he finished third in a Market Rasen bumper.

By then his year-younger half-sister Wince, unraced when he was entered for the sales, had won the 1,000 Guineas. Though he continued to ply his trade at the winter game, winning a couple of bumpers and hurdles, Ulundi began to show that he might not, after all, be a disgrace to his illustrious lineage, developing into a useful handicapper on the Flat two summers ago.

But his destiny seemed to be over hurdles and he made the transfer to Webber's specialist yard. "His owner's great hope was that he might win a Champion Hurdle," said Webber, "but he must have fast ground and we had to wait for the Scottish version at Ayr that season and he won that from 19lb out of the handicap. He has a tremendous stride for a horse of his size but on soft ground he can look very ordinary indeed."

The thought of the glamour and riches of the top-level Flat scene were far from Webber's mind when Ulundi arrived at Cropredy Lawn late in 2000. "He looked like a little hairy bear," he said, "the sort of pony you might have put your daughter on. But the staggering thing about him is the muscular development he has made from age six to seven. It is the sort of thing you hope your jumping types will do, but not a Flat-bred like him. He is an amazing creature." Hurdling is no longer on Ulundi's agenda. After winning a minor contest at Goodwood and the valuable Tote Exacta Handicap at Sandown last summer he made the trip to Dubai during the winter, though that overseas venture ended in frustration when he was sidelined with a heat in a suspensory ligament.

But he emerged better than ever at Royal Ascot in June to land a touch (backed from 16-1 to 10-1) in the Wolferton Rated Stakes. That put the Arlington Million, on Saturday week, firmly on his agenda, with a tilt at the Hong Kong Cup in December a longer-term ambition in his journey from reject to jumper to handicapper to Grade 1 contender.

"Sure, next week is a brave shot for a horse operating off 114," said Webber. "But the ground here at the moment is so unlike the summer ground he needs. The alternatives were a Group 3 at Haydock in a bog on Saturday or the York International in a possible bog."

Godolphin's recently disappointing Tobougg and Freefourinternet, from the Brian Meehan yard, are the other likely European challengers for the 10-furlong race that is Round 5 of the World Series. "It is a bit of a flyer for us," admitted Webber, "and I'm not saying we'll beat a horse like Beat Hollow. But it's as easy a track as there is in North America for Europeans, the ground is invariably fast and the racecourse looks after everyone very well. It was an easier decision to make than some."