Wayne Rooney ready to cheer on horse 'Pippy' at debut race

London, May 8 (ANI): Wayne Rooney will be debuting his recently bought colt 'Pippy', at the Lily Agnes Stakes, on Tuesday.

Trainer Tom Dascombe has sought to dampen expectations ahead of Rooney's first ever runner as an owner.

Two-year-old Pippy, who carries the pink silks of the Manchester United striker and his wife Coleen, has been registered for five-furlong on Tuesday, the opening day of Chester's May meeting.

Pippy's rivals include four stable mates from Dascombe's Cheshire stable, which is owned by Rooney's team mate Michael Owen .

The Old Trafford colleagues will be rivals on the track with Owen a joint owner of another of the Dascombe quintet, Trinityelitedotcom, in a race sponsored by his Manor Farm stable, which is a traditional staging post for talented, precocious two-year-olds.

However, Dascombe said the entry son of Exceed And Excel, who will be ridden by Jamie Spencer, had been more dictated by a desire to keep Pippy apart form Rooney's Tomway who is scheduled to make his debut in the only other two-year-old race at Chester meeting 24 hours later.

Pippy cost Rooney 60,000 pounds last month after being bought at a 'breeze-up' sale, where an auction is conducted after buyers have had a chance to watch lots gallop.

"Pippy breezed well and has done nothing wrong since he has been with us. Whether he will have enough experience to be competitive against horses, which have run before, we will find out," the Daily Mail quoted Dascombe as saying.

"But if he doesn't win on Wednesday, he will be winning before too long.

"We have Wayne's Tomway in the two-year-old raced on Thursday. There did not seem a lot of point running them against each other that is why he is entered for the Lily Agnes.

"He is a nice horse but it is not that we have targeted the race," he said.

One positive for Rooney is that, after a series of near-misses, Dascombe enjoyed his first two-year-old winner of the season with Ceiling Kitty at Kempton on Sunday.

The trainer, who has prepared Owen's St Leger second Brown Panther for a comeback in Friday's Ormonde Stakes, said Rooney's third two-year-old, 60,000gn colt Switcharooney, is still some way off making his debut.

"Switcharooney was never going to be an early runner. He is a big horse but should be ready in the next couple of months," he added. (ANI)