Charlie Fellowes hoping sky is the limit for Atrium in the Lincoln

The four-year-old seemed on the rise last season, making progress in a series of one-mile handicaps and ending the season with back-to-back wins at Newbury and then Doncaster.

The latter success, a semi-victory at the St. Leger meet, was against a field of 15 rivals over the Lincoln distance.

The big handicap is therefore of course the immediate target of Highclere’s own gelding, a race for which he currently has a 12/1 shot from a 100 rating.

“He’s doing really well, it’s been a plan for a long time,” Fellowes said.

“We were going to run him at the Balmoral late last year but he just missed out so we decided to call it a day, protect his handicap brand and aim for the Lincoln first thing this year.

“He won over course and distance so it seemed like a very obvious move.

“He’s fine at home, he worked on the grass on Saturday and looked great. He still has a lot of work to do and that should make him perfect for the Saturday week.

“He’s not a difficult horse to get fit, he’s not a big rough horse, he’s a light frame horse and he’s not one that needs a run or canter on the track or anything.

“He keeps himself very fit at home anyway. I am very happy with Where is and we are very much looking forward to it.”

Atrium looked versatile on ground last season, winning on good and soft ground, but Fellowes noted that his best performances came on a surface with a little more ease and that was another factor in favor of an offer pointed out by Lincoln earlier in the season.

“We found out mid-year that he’s clearly a lot better when he gets his toe in,” he said.

“He’s a wonderful runner and you wouldn’t have any trouble running him on fast ground, he would never mess up but he just seems a lot happier when he’s feeling light on the ground.

“You don’t see that on him because he’s a very good mover and happy in every way, but there’s a definite correlation between his performances and being able to get his toe in.

“That was another really attractive reason to put it down and go straight to the Lincoln.”

Fellowes is also formulating plans for Vintage Stakes winner Marbaan.

That win came over seven furlongs, but two runs batted late in the term have prompted the coach to consider a return to a six-furlong sprint distance.

In the early stages of his career, Marbaan ran the journey twice, finishing third in the debut and then winning by five lengths at a freshman in Nottingham last June.

Although a Guineas entry has been made and could yet be pursued, Fellowes expects the Oasis Dream colt to fall behind on the journey instead, and is thinking of races like the Pavilion Stakes at Ascot as the first port of call.

He said: “Marbaan is good, he looks really good and has done well over the winter. He’s not a small horse and what he did last year was very good because he’s quite a big boy, not big but definitely not small.

“We’re in no hurry because there’s not much for him, he’s with the Guineas but we put him there just in case and I don’t think he’s really a Guineas horse.

“I hope we actually get back to sprinting in the end, I just felt, especially in Ireland (6th in the National Stakes) that he finished his races very tamely.

“Even though he won a group two over seven (furlongs) at Goodwood, he was stone cold over the sharpest seven in the country that day and was smuggled into the race.

“We had Greenham set as a possible base for him but I think we could end up starting with something like the pavilion at Ascot and see where we go from there.

“It depends on how he works in April. If he doesn’t show me the speed I’m expecting, we could end up at Greenham and then think about an English Guinea or a French Guinea, but I think we could end up going back to six stadiums.”

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