Since the day No Nay Mets and Crimson Advocate won their respective Royal Ascot qualifiers May 13 at Gulfstream Park, their trainer, George Weaver, has been busy making arrangements for his 2-year-olds' stakes appearances at England's most prestigious Thoroughbred meet.
According to the Daily Racing Form, Weaver's wife Cindy will be able to join him for the Royal Ascot trip. Last July, Cindy Weaver suffered a severe brain injury in a accident at Saratoga.
“Cindy has come a long ways while continuing her recovery since the accident,” Weaver told DRF. “It's not easy what she's had to go through over the past 11 months just to get herself to where she's at right now. She's put an awful lot of work into this and fortunately is slowly but steadily getting back to being capable of doing more things, like traveling to Aspen, Colorado, as we did in March and now making this trip to England next month.
“For us, as a family, that means everything in the world to us and I am so really proud of her.”
No Nay Mets, who scored a front-running 3 ½-length victory in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile, a five-furlong turf sprint for 2-year-olds, and Crimson Advocate, who sped to a 3 ½-length romp in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies also going five furlongs on turf, each earned a berth in one of six races for juveniles at Royal Ascot (June 20-24).
“It's a special place to race horses. Their racing is topnotch,” said Weaver, whose precocious juveniles each earned a $25,000 travel stipend, as well as the winner's share of the purse and an automatic Royal Ascot berth, with the victories at Gulfstream. “It's exciting when you have horses with the talent to participate.”
Weaver has opted for the five-furlong Norfolk (G2) for No Nay Mets, who is a son of 2013 Norfolk winner No Nay Never. Crimson Advocate is being pointed toward the five-furlong Queen Mary (G2), which will be renewed Wednesday, June 21, the day before the Norfolk will be contested.
“They'll be leaving June 13th,” said Weaver, who will be accompanied by his wife, Cindy, who has made significant strides in her rehabilitation of a brain injury sustained last summer at Saratoga while exercising a horse that collapsed suddenly. “They'll train at Newmarket.”
Frankie Dettori, the international riding superstar, has been engaged to ride No Nay Mets, who is owned by Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman's Bregman Family Racing LLC, while Hall of Famer John Velazquez has the mount on Crimson Advocate, a daughter of Nyquist owned by R. A. Hill Stable, Swinbank Stables, Black Type Thoroughbreds, RAP Racing, Chris Mara, BlackRidge Stables LLC and Amy Dunne.
No Nay Mets scored a 10-1 upset victory while making his debut in the Royal Palm Juvenile, in which he shook off early pressure before drawing away under Luca Panici. Crimson Advocate outran trainer Wesley Ward's odds-on favorite, Ocean Mermaid, in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies, in which she wore blinkers for the first time during her front-running performance under Edwin Gonzalez.
The post ‘Really Proud Of Her’: 11 Months After Brain Injury, Cindy Weaver Will Accompany Husband With Dual Royal Ascot Hopes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
