Trained by Mick Appleby, Annaf was last seen securing a lucrative payday for his connections when landing the $2-million G2 1351 Turf Sprint in Saudi Arabia, bursting clear in the closing stages to win by three quarters of a length. The five-year-old had another big pot in his sights in the shape of the $1.5-million Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan on Saturday, March 30, but those plans have now had to be shelved as he prepares to return to his trainer's Oakham base.

Appleby said, “He got taken ill on the flight over, but it is not life threatening or anything and he's hopefully going to be fine, it's just prevented him from running. It's a shame but it's a risk you take when they are flying a fair bit. He came home after Saudi and was heading back out so maybe it was just a bit too much for him.

“He should be fine and the vets out in Dubai in the hospital are happy with him–he should be fine to come back home when the other one [Roberto Escobarr] does. We'll probably get him ready for Ascot now, that will probably be the main aim.”

A run at Royal Ascot could also be on the cards for Annaf's stablemate, Big Evs (Ire), who won four of his six starts as a two-year-old in 2023, culminating with another high-profile international success for his stable when landing the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in November.

“He's great and has wintered really well,” Appleby said of the son of Blue Point (Ire). “He's not far off being ready to run, we just need to decide where we are going to run. The obvious race would have been the Commonwealth Cup, but that is six furlongs and we don't really want to try him over six first time back, so we're not really sure where we will start back. The weather is not helping and it's raining again here now.

“I think in the early season we will definitely be sticking to five furlongs. We're obviously going to have to try him at six at some point and the way he won at Goodwood on that heavy ground, you would say he would stay the six.”

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The son of Muhaarar, who won the G3 Bengough S. in October, ran second in a Lingfield listed race earlier this month, a prep for the G2 Saudi National Bank 1351 Turf Sprint on Saturday. He galloped 1200 metres Wednesday morning.

“Annaf worked over six furlongs [1200m] on the grass this morning and everyone is happy,”Appleby said. “My two horses will have an easy day tomorrow and canter again on Friday. Annaf didn't get as good a draw as Roberto Escobarr but I'm not too worried. I think he'll be able to get across from 12 and slot in behind the leaders hopefully.”

Roberto Escobarr, who spend 1600 metres over the grass on Wednesday, will break from gate three in the G3 Longines Red Sea Turf H. over 3000 metres, also on grass, on Saturday. The multiple Group 3 winner landed the G3 Premio St Leger Italiano in November, and was last engaged taking fourth in a Newcastle all-weather handicap on New Year's Day.

“He worked this morning over a mile [1600m] and everyone is happy so he will have an easy day tomorrow and canter again on Friday,” Appleby reported. “He has drawn in stall three, which is a good draw for him as I'd imagine the plan will be to jump out and make the running.”

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The very domination of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) will likely have put the colt at the head of the class for champion 2-year-old honors, and the Repole Stable homebred looked good Saturday morning.

“We were extremely happy with the way Fierceness ran,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “The race kind of unfolded the way we envisioned it would. We wanted to get involved and get to the first turn in good position, which he was able to do. Just a powerful performance.”

'Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) looked to be going nowhere at short odds on the Juvenile, but got going late to finish a respectable third.

“Locked got shuffled back a little more than we wanted and then got stuck inside,” Pletcher said. “There was a lot of kickback. I thought once he kind of got into the clear down the lane he started closing pretty well. At that point, the race had kind of gotten away from him. He was a couple strides away from being second, but he just had too much to do at that point.”
Pletcher said both colts will return first to Churchill Downs before shipping to the trainer's South Florida base at Palm Beach Downs to chart a course towards the new year.

There will be no such gray area where it comes to the Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly after George Krikorian's Just F Y I (Justify) stamped her authority on her race Friday, lowering the colors of the previously undefeated divisional front-runner 'TDN Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro). If he wasn't totally surprised that his filly proved best, he was slightly taken aback with the way she did it.

“She actually showed a bit more early speed than I expected,” Mott said. “She put herself right up there, which was great.”
The connections of Tamara confirmed that she emerged with a 'small knot' and the back of her rear hind.

“We'll take a look at it and see what it is,” said trainer Richard Mandella. “That will determine whether we may need to give her a rest. I could see at the half-mile pole that she wasn't running her race. I thought Mike (Smith) would have a tight hold on her.”

Chad Brown said that Hard to Justify, who gave her sensational young stallion a second straight Breeders' Cup winner on Friday in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, would get a rest with an eye on her sophomore season.

European horses unsurprisingly made their presence felt in the afternoon's other grass races. Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) gave her sire, trainer Mick Appleby and jockey Tom Marquand their first Breeders' Cup winner with their first starter.

“It hasn't sunk in yet, it really is a dream come true,” trainer Michael Appleby said. “I'm still pinching myself. It was the best day of my career and I'm just so proud of all my team at home, Tom Marquand and Big Evs's owners Rachael and Paul Teasdale.”

Trainer Aidan O'Brien was dealt a disappointing blow when River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) was withdrawn from the Juvenile Turf Friday morning, but the team was mollified some when Unquestionable (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) validated favoritism in the final Breeders' Cup event of the day.

“It's very tough to win here, but I'm delighted for the lads as they put so much into it,” O'Brien said. “It's hard to explain because when things start bad like what happened with River Tiber as it usually goes down because there are a lot of areas you can't control.”

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For the curtain up, Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}), named to honour a fallen friend, paid the best possible tribute to the late Paul Evans in giving his British owners Paul and Rachael Teasdale an extraordinary introduction to racing on the other side of the world.

“This is absolutely fantastic for Paul. It's a year on Wednesday since he died, so it's very fitting for a great guy with a great horse. It couldn't be any better,” said Paul Teasdale.

“This is what it's all about. We came here knowing that it was going to be a tough race and that we were racing against the best in the world, but we have a little saying that we wanted to be brave and to be among the best, and that's what the guy who this horse is named for would have said. It's a tribute to him with an amazing horse.”

Big Evs, trained by Breeders' Cup debutant Mick Appleby, is the stand-out performer from a strong first crop of runners by European champion freshman sire-elect Blue Point. He had been picked up for 50,000gns as a yearling by breeze-up pinhooker Micky Cleere, but was withdrawn from his intended appearance at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale when sold privately.

Teasdale continued, “I bought the horse in March of this year and didn't necessarily plan to call him Big Evs, which was Paul's nickname, but when Mick called me and said he was going to enter him and we needed a name it just seemed the natural thing to do.

“He was a personal friend for 40 years and we went racing together for 25 years. He was diagnosed last year with lung cancer and he died after a short illness.”

Since winning the Listed Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot on only his second start, Big Evs has been in the sights of plenty of potential purchasers. As he added the G3 Molecomb S. and G2 Flying Childers S. to his burgeoning resume, the offers kept coming and the price kept rising. So was Teasdale ever tempted to sell his horse with such an emotional connection for him?

“Absolutely not,” he replied without a moment's hesitation. “We're delighted with what he's done. We didn't have to do any soul searching, we just turned them down.”

For Tom Marquand, it was a case of one and done, as he triumphed on his first ever Breeders' Cup ride and heads off now to Australia for the Melbourne Cup Carnival and on to Japan for a winter in which his international profile can only continue to be enhanced.

“That's his run style at home but English gate speed is different to American gate speed and we were just hoping that he would be fast enough to get a good pitch,” said the jockey. “I think he's tough as well because he did break half a length slower than some of them and he needed that top gear, but he trucked along. I'd say he was learning around the bend, he wasn't the smoothest but he got the hang of it. To be perfectly honest for as much confidence that you have that you're going to win, he just felt that there were two gears left all the way.”

In behind Big Evs and closing fast was another Royal Ascot winner, Amo Racing's Valiant Force (Malibu Moon), with champion jockey William Buick aboard, while Frankie Dettori and Starlust (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) claimed third for Ralph Beckett and Jim and Fitri Hay to give Britain and Ireland the trifecta in the opening contest.

A Ballydoyle one-two is nothing out of the ordinary, even at this exalted level, but the team could well have been left wondering whether they might have had the first three home in the Juvenile Turf but for the withdrawal on the insistence of the veterinary team at Santa Anita that River Tiber be stood down from the race. In his place, Unquestionable (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) was an emphatic winner – O'Brien's sixth in this contest – with Mountain Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never) the valiant runner-up sustaining a non-displaced condylar fracture of his cannon bone in running. 

“We thought that he might be a miler as a three-year-old so we thought that we would get away with a mile around here now,” said O'Brien of Unquestionable. “We hope he might be a French Guineas horse.”

On Mountain Bear's injury, he added, “[The fracture] is not displaced, so that's good. He'll get a cast on it for four weeks and he should be fine. He's back at the barn and settled in now. They were unbelievably quick to pick him up and bring him down so he did no damage.”

O'Brien also said that he felt prior to Friday morning that Unquestionable would have finished behind River Tiber.

“We felt that River Tiber was in a different place to where he's been for his last two runs. His work had been excellent and everything had been very good with him,” he said. 

“We were sorry to see him go out. But the rules are the rules. We thought he was ready to run but the vets didn't agree, and it's their job. Whatever the authorities decide happens, and we accept that. It's just the way it was.”

While this was essentially a victory for an Irish-Qatari partnership, Unquestionable, who runs in the colours of Al Shaqab Racing, is a member of the final crop of Wootton Bassett to be conceived in France. Nobody at Santa Anita had bigger smiles on their faces than Guillaume and Camille Vitse, who bred the colt with their daughters Valentine and Axel at their “boutique” farm in France.

“It's just amazing. It's something we couldn't even think about when we started our operation five years ago,” said Vitse, the former manager of Haras de Colleville who started the family business, Normandie Breeding.

“Being here at the Breeders' Cup is amazing enough but winning is just like a dream. I have had that dream for 35 years now, since I was a kid, so I'm over the moon.”

He added, “There was so much pressure when River Tiber came out and Unquestionable became favourite, and when it goes like that it often doesn't happen, but today everything went fine. It's unbelievable.”

Wootton Bassett adding yet another string to his bow with a juvenile Grade I winner in North America will have delighted the Coolmore team that purchased him three years ago. Having already been represented by Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Audarya (Fr) in 2020, he could yet add to that record with his son King Of Steel being one of the leading fancies in the Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday. 

But really this was a day for two of the most exciting young stallions on either side of the Atlantic. Blue Point is uncatchable in Europe, and then there's Justify, who is fast becoming an international sire sensation. His first crop are now three, and that vintage includes the GI Belmont Oaks winner Aspen Grove and GI Woody Stephens S. winner Arabian Lion. It is Justify's second crop that has really caught the imagination, however. He has arguably the best juvenile colt and filly in Europe in City Of Troy and Opera Singer, and in the space of 40 minutes on a roasting Friday afternoon, he added two juvenile Breeders' Cup winners, on dirt and turf, to the list in Just F Y I and Hard To Justify. It's a record which is all the more impressive when one considers that Justify didn't even see a racecourse until he was three. His career lasted for four short months but it included a Triple Crown. 

This is the Breeders' Cup, and one breeder in particular who will surely be sending mares back to Justify is Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals of Yeguada Centurion, who produced the Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Hard To Justify from the Quality Road mare Instant Reflex. Pujals has also been represented as breeder this year by the Justify filly Ramatuelle, who was runner-up to Vandeek (GB) in the G1 Prix Morny, and in his own colours the breeder has two of the best three-year-olds in France in the Christopher Head-trained duo of Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) and Big Rock (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}). 

They call this meeting the World Championships, and it starts with the breeders. After day one, breeders from Dubai, France, Spain, and of course America have already seen their labours rewarded with success at the big show. There's plenty more excitement to come. 

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“I'm still gobsmacked,” said a visibly moved Appleby following his first North American graded victory. “I can't believe it. He's been an absolute superstar all year and to come here and put in a performance like that is unreal.”

Accustomed to getting his way early against his fellow European rivals in four of five prior starts, Big Evs was given a crash course  in 'American' speed as 6-1 shot Crimson Advocate (Nyquist) blasted to the front, streaking through an eye-popping quarter in :20.71. Unrelenting, the 3-1 chance was not going to let her get away from him, pressing her relentlessly through a half in :43.65. Ready to pounce on the game front-runner leaving the quarter pole, Big Evs collared the gallant filly in early stretch, scooted clear through the lane and had enough to hold off the fast-closing longshot–G2 Norfolk S. winner Valiant Force (Malibu Moon)–by a half length. Group 3 scorer Starlust (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}), partnered by Frankie Dettori, rounded out the trifecta for European-based horses, finishing 3/4 of a length behind the runner up at odds of 24-1.

“Just amazing. Once he got out the gates and we got in an early position, I knew we wouldn't be far away,” said Marquand, who was realizing his first Breeders' Cup win in his first attempt. “Turning for home nothing was going to catch him. He put his head down and galloped all the way to the line.”

“To ride a Breeders' Cup winner is a dream come true. He's just an exceptional horse.”

Hardly a surprise here, Big Evs has proven remarkably consistent overseas, having finished better than second in four of five starts. Runner up in his career debut at Redcar in May, the son of Freshman sire Blue Point reeled off a pair of wins in the Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot before eking out a front-running neck win in the Aug. 2 G3 Molecomb S. at Glorious Goodwood. Well supported for the G1 Nunthorpe S. at York Aug. 25, the colt faded to 14th behind winner Live In the Dream (Ire) (Prince Of Lir {Ire})–a contender in Saturday's GI Turf Sprint–behind  bounced back to take the G2 Flying Childers S. at Doncaster Sept. 15.

“Going into the race, I thought he had an outstanding chance, and when Tom rode him in a breeze earlier in the week he couldn't have been more bullish,” explained Appleby. “We'll enjoy it as it's a dream to be here never mind go and win. Hopefully he comes out the race in good order then we'll make a plan for next season. He really is a horse of a lifetime for us. I can't thank the team at home enough for all their hard work.”

Much to the dismay of trainer Jessica Harrington, Group 3 winner Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) was a vet scratch Friday. Third in the G1 Phoenix S. at the Curragh in August, he finished fourth last time out in the Sept. 30 G1 Middle Park S.

Pedigree Notes:
Darley's Blue Point continued his scintillating season while earning his second top-level winner at Santa Anita Friday. The sire of Rosallion (Ire), winner of the Oct. 1 G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp, Blue Point is responsible for no less than 41 thus far. The leading First season sire with over $1.7 million in earnings, the son of Shamardal currently ranks second overall among European-based sire with their juvenile offspring.

The winner's dam, Hana Lina (GB), is a daughter of European champion 2-year-old Filly and English Highweight juvenile filly Queen's Logic (Ire) (Grand Lodge), a half-sister to European Horse of the Year and $6.6-million earner Dylan Thomas (Ire) (Danehill) and Classic winner and English Highweight 3-year-old filly Homecoming Queen (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}). The latter is responsible for Highweight English and Irish juvenile filly Shale (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Queen's Logic also proved successful in the breeding shed, producing Lady Of The Desert (Rahy), herself a 3-year-old highweight at 5-7 furlongs.

Subsequent to her first black-type winner, Hana Lina foaled a Ribchester (Ire) filly last season and followed up with a colt by Earthlight (Ire) this term.

Big Evs wins the $1 Million #BreedersCup Juvenile Turf Sprint on #FutureStarsFriday at @santaanitapark! Congrats to all of the connections! pic.twitter.com/R1hWA5dCF8

— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 3, 2023

Friday, Santa Anita
BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE TURF SPRINT-GI, $920,000, Santa Anita, 11-3, 2yo, 5fT, :55.31, fm.
1–BIG EVS (IRE), 122, c, 2, by Blue Point (Ire)
         1st Dam: Hana Lina (GB), by Oasis Dream (GB)
         2nd Dam: Queen's Logic (Ire), by Grand Lodge
         3rd Dam: Lagrion, by Diesis (GB)
1ST GRADE I WIN. (50,000gns Ylg '22 TATOCT). O-RP Racing Ltd; B-Rabbah Bloodstock Limited (Ire); T-Michael Appleby; J-Tom Marquand. $520,000. Lifetime Record: MGSW-Eng, 6-4-1-0, $748,283. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Valiant Force, 122, c, 2, Malibu Moon–Vigui's Heart, by Quality Road. 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($75,000 Wlg '21 KEENOV; $100,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Amo Racing USA; B-Ramon Horta Rangel & Spendthrift Farm (KY); T-Adrian Murray. $170,000.
3–Starlust (GB), 122, c, 2, Zoustar (Aus)–Beyond Desire (GB), by Invincible Spirit (Ire). 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. (55,000gns Ylg '22 TATOCT). O-Mrs. Fitriani Hay; B-Branton Court Stud LLP (GB); T-Ralph Beckett. $90,000.
Margins: HF, 3/4, NK. Odds: 3.20, 23.10, 24.00.
Also Ran: No Nay Mets (Ire), Shards, Crimson Advocate, Committee of One, Cherry Blossom (Ire), Slider, Amidst Waves, Asean (Ire), Tiger Belle (Ire). Scratched: April Vintage, Givemethebeatboys (Ire), Hedwig.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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“He's in good form, we've just freshened him up a bit and he seems in good order,” said Appleby. “Hopefully he stays that way until he goes, he flies out on Oct. 26. He's got to have 48 hours in quarantine then he'll be able to go out on track two or three times before the race.”

“We're going to take him for a racecourse gallop so we can run him around a bend, obviously he's never raced around a bend before but I don't think it'll be an issue,” Appleby said. “He's got to do a bit of stalls work with a bell but I think we're going to do that when he's out there so he can get used to the stalls there.

“He's doing very well and hopefully it's all systems go.”

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“It's [been] a long time since a two-year-old has won the Nunthorpe [Kingsgate Native, 2007]. So, yes, it's a big ask for him, but hopefully he's going there with a very good chance at the weights. Jason doesn't ride as he is on Highfield Princess. Andrea Atzeni rides,” said conditioner Mick Appleby. “He's in good order. He did a good piece of work this morning and he'll probably have one more piece of work on Wednesday. I'm delighted with him.”

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A trip to the Knavesmire at York has also been pencilled in later in the season by Appleby, who revealed that he was not one bit surprised by the colt's performance at the royal meeting last week.

He said, “I did quite fancy him because he worked well with Annaf ((Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) [King's Stand third] the Saturday before. I was pretty confident he would finish in the first three but I didn't think he would win like that. Obviously he is a very good horse.”

Appleby added, “I had plenty of messages of congratulations afterwards which I was very appreciative of. It is what we do it for and Royal Ascot is where everyone wants to have winners.

“He is more than likely to now go for the Molecomb at Goodwood. I think that is the most obvious target for him and then we will go from there.”

The Nunthorpe could be pencilled in for Big Evs at York but there is also a chance he could step up a furlong and take on the Gimcrack S. instead.

Appleby explained, “We've said we will possibly look at the Nunthorpe afterwards but Goodwood is next on the agenda. We did half think about going for the Gimcrack at York after Goodwood as well.

“Whether he will get six furlongs I don't know, but it didn't look like he was stopping at Ascot. At York I think he probably would get six furlongs, but we will get Goodwood done first then make a decision which route we take after that.

“The owner has had a few offers on the table for him but he is not interested in selling him which is good to see.”

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Anyone with even a passing interest in Irish racing will know that Keane is right up there with the best riders in Europe and his royal winner was long overdue. 

Of course, it came in rather fortuitous circumstances, with Keane deputising for Harrington's number one rider Shane Foley, who was cruelly ruled out for six weeks after breaking his collarbone at Gowran Park.

Many will point to the fact that Keane came in for the winning ride on Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Irish Derby last year and Dermot Weld called on his services for Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) in the Breeders' Cup Turf in 2020.

But the point remains, Keane is a top-drawer rider and one that is deserving of more opportunities to showcase his talents on the international stage like the previous Irish champion jockeys did before him. 

Victory aboard Villanova Queen could serve as a reminder of that fact. 

Tudhope Hardens Tremendous Ascot Record

Danny Tudhope has had no such problems with finding the back of the net at Ascot. In fact, this is the meeting where he has enjoyed some of his best days in the saddle. 

Think Lord Glitters (Fr) (Whipper) storming to Queen Anne success at massive odds, Holloway Boy (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}) flashing home in the Chesham and Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) scooting clear in the Queen Mary. Tudhope has a lot of fine memories from this meeting.

He also won the Duke Of Cambridge S. in 2019 aboard Move Swiftly (GB) (Farhh {GB}) and doubled his tally of wins in the Group 2 contest on Tuesday when delivering Rogue Millennium (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) at exactly the right time to win by just a neck. 

That success brought Tudhope's record at Ascot to 23-231 and hardened his reputation as being a master of his craft on the straight course. 

Appleby Proves He's Not Just A Sand Artist

Mick Appleby told TDN Europe back in January how, in many ways, that he had become a victim of his own success on the all-weather and that he'd love to train more two-year-old runners. 

The trainer proved on Wednesday that, given the raw material, he can do the business with juveniles by sending out Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) to win the Windsor Castle. 

One of the best all-weather trainers in the business, Appleby has gone some way to demonstrating that he is just as good on turf through his handling of progressive sprinter Raasel (GB) (Showcasing) and now Big Evs. 

Indeed, Big Evs will also go down as a noteworthy first Royal Ascot winner for Blue Point, the first of the freshman sires to achieve such a feat this week. 

Two Things To Take From The Prince Of Wales's Stakes

Few would have seen Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) winning the Prince Of Wales's S before the race was run. Fewer still would have predicted the style in which it would be achieved. 

Regardless, there didn't appear to be any fluke about the victory, with the John and Thady Gosden-trained runner quickening up off a steady pace and rounding the field as if they were stationary. 

He looks a very smart performer over 10 furlongs, which he proved in Riyadh earlier this year before coming up short behind a global superstar in Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) when upped to 1m4f in the Dubai Sheema Classic. 

There were a couple of things to take from Wednesday's race; Equinox is probably the best horse in the world right now and Mostahdaf won't be underestimated in the Juddmonte International.

American Winner An Important One 

International competition is what underpins the royal meeting. That's what made the result of the opening Queen Mary such an important one with the American raider Crimson Advocate (Nyquist) hanging on to land a pulsating renewal. 

That brought American-trained runners' tally of winners at Royal Ascot to 14. A whopping 12 of those have been trained by Wesley Ward, who is incidentally without a winner since Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in the 2021 Commonwealth Cup. 

The international runners at Ascot are what the Irish runners are to Cheltenham. It's what makes the meeting so special. Without your Australian sprinters and razor-sharp American-bred juveniles, the meeting would not boast the same lustre. 

As a result, Ascot deserves a lot of credit for being proactive in recruiting runners from all over the world. George Weaver's Crimson Advocate won her qualifying race for Royal Ascot at Gulfstream back in May and such an initiative has proved a roaring success. 

Connections of Relief Rally (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), beaten just a nose by the American raider on Wednesday, may not agree, but Crimson Advocate's success was an important one as it served to further broaden the appeal of one of the most special race meetings in the world. 

Need For Minimum Ratings

That brings us onto Steven Seagull (GB) (War Command). Royal Ascot is supposed to be about bringing the best horses and people the world has to offer and pitching them against each other for one brilliant week of racing. 

So what was the 46-rated Steven Seagull doing running in the Queen's Vase? We had a similar situation a few years back when the 54-rated My Lucky Penny was allowed to run in the 2020 Irish 1,000 Guineas and duly tailed off at odds of 400-1.

Connections didn't even have an excuse of a day out on that occasion given the race took place behind closed doors due to Covid. 

These lowly-rated horses have their place, of course they do, but it's not on the biggest of stages where their participation could do more harm than good. Minimum ratings would serve to eliminate such needless worries going forward.

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One of the catalogue highlights is Malina Girl (Ire) (Malinas {Ger}) (lot 22), a winner of four of her six starts to date, including placed efforts in the Dawn Run Mares Novice Chase and the Coolmore Mares Novice Chases. Another is Optional Mix (Ire) (Carlotamix {Fr}) (lot 12), a five-time winner at the races for trainer Eoin Doyle and is out of an own sister to the winning hurdler Tramp Stamp (Ire) (King's Theatre {Ire}).

The 15-year-old mare Misrepresent (Distorted Humor) (lot 2) is set to be offered by Ballinahown Stud in foal to Dandy Man (Ire), meaning she is carrying a full-sibling to Countess Rosina (Ire), third in the Listed Unzip Me S. at Santa Anita. Misrepresent is a daughter of Grade II winner and Grade I-placed Halory Leigh (Halory Hunter).

Ballet Blanc (GB) (Highland Reel {Ire}) (lot 17) is part of a draft from Amanda Perrett's Coombelands Racing Stables and exits a promising runner-up effort at Lingfield on Mar. 1.

The sale has been supported with entries from trainers Mick Appleby, Ed Dunlop, Edward Lynam, Rebecca Menzies, Amy Murphy, Jamie Osborne, Henry Spiller and Tom Lacey.

Prospective buyers are required to register or logon to join the sale ahead of the commencement of bidding from 12 noon, Wednesday, Mar. 8. Bidding is scheduled to close from 12 noon on Thursday, Mar. 9.

The post Catalogue Released For Tattersalls Online March Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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