Gronkowski was victorious in Newcastle’s Listed contest last spring before going on to greater things, highlighted by his agonising defeat in the Dubai World Cup for Salem bin Ghadayer.
Ed Vaughan is the trainer responsible for Magic J, a 950,000-dollar purchase, who showed plenty of promise when making a winning debut over six furlongs at Yarmouth in September.
The Newmarket handler is looking forward to getting the Scat Daddy colt back into action on Friday.
“In the ideal world, I’d have loved to have started him at seven (furlongs) – but the ground was too soft for him at Newbury, which is why we took him out,” said Vaughan.
“I thought we’d go to Newcastle and see. He’s a horse we’re still learning about.
“He shows a lot of speed. We’ll know more after Friday – but he’s in good form, and we expect a big run.
“He’s a once-raced maiden, and we need to get him out. He needs more experience. We need to find out what his ideal trip is.”