Stan Moore: Total Gallery is a work of art

STAN MOORE believes that Total Gallery will become the top European sprinter this year and says winning the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot would mean more to him than lifting the 1,000 Guineas or Oaks with Lady Darshaan.

Total Gallery won the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp, leading home a British-trained 1-2-3 in August. Now the Lambourn trainer is planning to plunder some of the lucrative prize money on offer at the Dubai Carnival, with the $2million Golden Shaheen firmly in his sights.

The Group 1 race, run over six furlongs at the new $1billion Meydan racecourse, which is due to officially open on 28 January as a replacement for Nad Al Sheba, will be run on the new artificial Tapeta surface and will be contested around a bend on World Cup night (27 March).

Moore said: "I'll have to go out there and have a look at the track at the first or second meeting and then make a decision. There is no use preparing him to run unless we know what we're facing.

"There is also the option of the six-furlong Al Quoz Sprint [Group 3], which is on Turf and worth $1million.

"He won't be doing his first piece of real work until 1 February and if he doesn't go to Dubai, Singapore might be an option five weeks after that. We have to go where the money is, although there are people sniffing round, trying to buy him. Hopefully we can keep him. The King's Stand is on the agenda, though. That's his main target this season and while he is perhaps vulnerable over six furlongs, I don't think there is a horse in Europe who can beat him over five furlongs.