Vandeek Heads KHK Racing’s Class of 2024

Chris Wall, racing manager for owners KHK Racing, has issued a positive bulletin on last year's star juvenile Vandeek (GB) and dual Classic winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) as the countdown continues to the start of the Flat season on turf.

The yellow-and-black-striped colours of KHK Racing have been carried to notable success since they first appeared on British racecourses in 2020 and the latest campaign was arguably the operation's best yet following the emergence of the unbeaten Vandeek, who proved himself a high-class sprinting two-year-old for Simon and Ed Crisford when signing off with back-to-back Group 1 victories in the Prix Morny at Deauville and Middle Park S. at Newmarket.

By Havana Grey (GB) and out of a mare who raced exclusively at five furlongs, Vandeek looked all speed in his four starts as a juvenile and his connections have no plans to step him up in trip for a tilt at the G1 2,000 Guineas, with all roads instead leading to the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot on Friday, June 21.

“Vandeek has wintered well so far and everybody is very happy with him,” Wall said of the exciting colt. “He's just started cantering away and the Sandy Lane at Haydock [on Saturday, May 25] is hopefully where we'll make our seasonal debut en route to the Commonwealth Cup. It's so far so good and hopefully the old British weather won't interfere too much with him.

“It's exciting and hopefully he can build on what he achieved last year. You'd be thinking that he'd be capable of doing that looking at the type of horse he is. Physically, you'd be expecting him to strengthen and improve as a three-year-old, so we'll hope that proves to be the case.”

Vandeek's big target in the first part of the season, the Commonwealth Cup, was in the news on Tuesday when it was announced that the Group 1 event was in danger of being downgraded in 2025, depending on its performance this year.

Wall, who retired from the training ranks in 2022 after 36 years in that career, was clearly taken aback by the news as he said, “I would be very surprised if that was to be demoted. All races have cycles and some years where they perform better than others. I would have thought overall that the Commonwealth Cup has performed very well. I can't believe that it would be demoted just yet.

“I was on the racing committee when I was still training, back in the day when that [the introduction of the Commonwealth Cup] was actioned, and we always thought it was a positive move. It hasn't been going that long, but it's had some pretty good winners in that time. You can't take too short-term a view of a race like that, you've got to give it time to work. I think it's worked well so far and I was very surprised to hear that they were thinking of demoting it.”

One of the leading contenders for the 2023 running of the Commonwealth Cup was KHK Racing's Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who failed to meet expectations in the race itself and hasn't been seen in competitive action since.

An emphatic winner of the G2 Mill Reef S. at Newbury as a two-year-old, Sakheer has stayed in training with Roger Varian according to Wall, who is hopeful that the team's patient approach will pay off when the colt returns to the track in 2024.

“Sakheer just wasn't thriving last year,” said Wall. “The couple of runs he had were disappointing to say the least. We gave him a break after Ascot and tried to get him ready for an autumn campaign, but he still wasn't thriving. We couldn't find anything amiss, so we decided we'd give him time and freshen him up.

“He's done well physically and another one who has strengthened and put on weight. He looks very well, but we haven't decided yet where he might go. To start with we need to get him back on the track and performing well. Then we can develop a plan from there.”

More concrete plans are in place for fellow Varian trainee Eldar Eldarov, who has been a terrific servant to his connections having won the G1 St Leger at Doncaster in 2022 before doubling his top-level tally with victory in last year's Irish equivalent.

Eldar Eldarov has been off the track since that success at the Curragh in September, but that has all been part of the plan, reported Wall, as the five-year-old gears up for a potential trip to Dubai next month.

“Eldar Eldarov has done very well this winter and put on a lot of weight,” said Wall. “If he's performing well enough at home he may well go for the Dubai Gold Cup on World Cup night. If the weather interferes and we can't get him ready for that, then he'd make his debut like last year in the Yorkshire Cup.

“There was nothing wrong with him [after the Irish St Leger]. We had pretty terrible ground everywhere and Roger Varian took the view that the horse's optimum trip is a mile and six furlongs. Although he stays two miles, he's probably better at a slightly shorter trip. The only other race he could have run in was the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day, but that was always going to be very testing ground.

“We thought if we were going to have him ready for Dubai it made sense for him to have his break a bit earlier, so that he could come into training earlier in the year to get him fit enough for that, if everything goes right.”

Away from the well-established names in the KHK Racing ranks, My Cloud (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) and True Cyan (Ire) (No Nay Never) also came in for a positive mention from Wall, both three-year-olds who showed plenty of ability on their respective debuts.

True Cyan looks set to step up in grade having impressed when beating a pair of next-time-out winners at Newmarket in September, while My Cloud–a half-brother to the multiple Group 1-winning miler Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB})–was beaten only narrowly when having his first start at Newcastle earlier this week.

“We'll probably start her off in one of the Classic trials if all is well,” Wall said of True Cyan. “We'll see what that tells us. She did win well on debut and she's a filly who, physically, you'd expect her to be a better three-year-old. She remains an exciting prospect and all the reports so far are positive.

“My Cloud did everything right at Newcastle bar getting the win. It was just his lack of experience which got him beaten. He came to win his race and when he was challenged he had no idea what was expected of him until the penny dropped a bit too late.

“He remains a nice prospect and he's clearly got talent. He's a big horse and you'd expect him to improve through this year. I think Roger may not throw too much at him early on, but we'll see what he can do, how he progresses, and work a plan out as we go.”

The KHK Racing team earned total prize-money of £685,623 in Britain last year and that came from only 17 individual horses who carried their colours on the racecourse. Wall confirmed that there is no plan to massively expand their boutique team for 2024, preferring to focus on quality over quantity.

“I don't think KHK is ever going to be about large numbers,” said Wall. “I think we'll probably be around the 20-mark for horses this year and I'm sure that Shaikh Khalid [bin Hamad Al Khalifa] will be wanting to restock at the breeze-ups where he's had quite a bit of success in the past.

“We have a nice, exciting team and one or two horses still to run who are three-year-olds now and well-bred. You never know whether something might pop up out of those as well. It's an exciting time and we've got some nice horses to go to war with.”

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Eldar Eldarov Remains on Track for the Irish St Leger

Last season's Cazoo St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) will try and add the Irish equivalent during this year's Irish Champions Festival.

“The target for him is to go to the Irish St Leger and that is very much still on the cards at the moment,” said Chris Wall, racing manager for owners KHK Racing Ltd. “He's grand and it's all systems go for that.”

The 4-year-old was originally slated to contest the G3 St Leger trial earlier this month, however, was subsequently declared a non-runner after not travelling well.

“We don't know why because he's never had that problem before,” he explained. “He got upset travelling and they thought rather than carry on to Ireland they would bring him home. I think they had got into north Wales just beyond Chester.

“The worry was if you put him on the ferry and it deteriorated into something like colic then you are in the middle of the sea and you can't do anything about it. He just got his knickers in a twist about something so they brought him home.”

Trained by Roger Varian, Eldar Eldarov was second in his seasonal debut in the G2 Yorkshire Cup S. in May before finishing seventh in the G1 Ascot Gold Cup the following month. Most recently, he was fourth in the G1 Goodwood Cup S. on Aug. 1.

Varian indicated that KHK Racing-owned Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), the winner of last fall's G2 Mill Reef S., is likely to resurface later this fall in the QIPCO British Champions Sprint Oct. 21. He was last seen finishing 13th in the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot June 23.

“He's had a few niggly things after Ascot, but he's back in work and we're hoping to run him in something this autumn,” said Wall. “I don't think he'll be ready for the Haydock [Betfair Sprint Cup Sept. 9], that's not far away now so he won't make that. But we hope we might have him back for a run perhaps in the Champions Sprint and we'll go from there.

“It's been one of those years really where things haven't quite gone his way, but we hope we can get him back on track and if not we'll have to hope things go right for him next year instead.”

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Royal Ascot: Irish Kingpins Dominate The Features

Royal Ascot Friday sees the Irish contingent to the fore as TDN Rising Stars Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) and Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never) exercise iron grips on the feature G1 Coronation S. and G1 Commonwealth Cup respectively. While the former flashed her considerable talent just twice as a juvenile, Ballydoyle's champion of 2022 domineered his way through three important black-type tests before injury halted his momentum. Now the winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas, Tahiyra comfortably has the measure of chief rival Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never) so far in her career but if there is one thing Dermot Weld will know about beating Ballydoyle is that you have to do it again and again and maintain your level.

Little Big Bear, who became the latest in a line of his stable's big guns to miss a beat in the 2000 Guineas, may actually get a mile in time but while he is so comfortable at these sprint trips and Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) is around it is a case of back to basics. As he sauntered back to winning ways in the G2 Sandy Lane S., it was as if that dull day at Newmarket where his brilliance was diminished never happened. Intriguingly, it was an experience shared with his key opponent and fellow TDN Rising Star Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who also struggled to cope with his speed edge bludgeoned by conditions on the Rowley Mile.

Sakheer's trainer Roger Varian was giving off all the right vibes on Thursday. “He looks like he could still be a high-class colt, we certainly believe he can be, and we're looking forward to Friday,” he said. “He had an easy time after the Guineas and we were always going to come to Ascot, but he's built up over the last few weeks into this race nicely, his work has been on point, he's been really well and we're hopeful.”

Newmarket woes also apply to the case of Lezoo (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}), who was among the backwash in the 1000 Guineas and now gravitates back to her comfort zone. She has to improve even off her G1 Cheveley Park S. win, which puts her on a virtual par with the now-retired Middle Park hero Blackbeard (Ire) (No Nay Never) who was always a few pounds adrift of Ballydoyle's champion last term. She and Sakheer are joined by the G2 Gimcrack S.-winning TDN Rising Star Noble Style (GB) (Kingman {GB}), so disappointing behind the revelation Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) in Newbury's Listed Carnarvon S. last time, in having a lot to find with an elite Little Big Bear but this is Royal Ascot where certainties have a way of unravelling.

The Gosdens showed on Wednesday and Thursday that they are never to be left out of the group 1 equation and despite her obvious experience deficit, Normandie Stud's TDN Rising Star Queen For You (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) goes into the Coronation which her dam Fallen For You (GB) (Dansili {GB}) won in 2012 as very much a live contender. It's not just about pedigree with her, however, as her performance when narrowly denied by Sounds Of Heaven (GB) (Kingman {GB}) with the run of the race favouring that Jessie Harrington raider in York's Listed Michael Seely Memorial S. confirmed her as a major talent.

“She is the least experienced in the field, but improved when upped in class at York and has taken that in her stride,” Thady said. “This is another major step up, but we feel she has every right to take her chance.” Kate Harrington added of Sounds Of Heaven, “She is lovely filly and a very underestimated filly who only does as much as she has to. She has a great mind and I think Ascot will really suit her. We're hopeful of a big, big run.”

In the opening G3 Albany S., the Crisfords' impressive Doncaster maiden winner Carla's Way (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) will have an abundance of followers now that the time performance of that defeat of the subsequent 11-length-winning TDN Rising Star Star Of Mystery (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) is known. Lezoo's half-sister Navassa Island (Ire) (Territories {Ire}), now the property of Ecurie Ama Zingteam, also wowed with her sectionals despite going down to the re-opposing Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) on a spectacular debut in Naas's G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies Sprint S.

TDN Rising Stars Matrika (Ire) (No Nay Never) and Persian Dreamer (Calyx {GB}) are just two more in the mix in the Albany, which for the past three years has featured the following season's 1000 Guineas heroine in the beaten trio Mawj (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) and Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}). Interestingly, the Newmarket maiden taken by Mawj and Cachet prior to meeting their match here was won last month by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum's Jabaara (Ire), another daughter of Exceed And Excel with big hopes attached. “She will like the fast ground if it stays that way and six furlongs looks her trip for the moment,” Varian said. “She's an exciting filly, I think.”

Amo Racing broke their duck at the Royal meeting on Thursday and the racing and operations manager Tom Pennington is excited about their representative here. “I haven't lost any faith in Persian Dreamer, she was very impressive on debut,” he said. “The sharp five furlongs on quick ground at York in the Marygate has probably played against her and she didn't let herself down. She's a big, strong filly and just didn't enjoy the ground.”

In the day's other pattern race, the presence of Amo Racing's Derby runner-up King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}) has ensured a small line-up, with a trio of Derby disappointments engaged headed by Juddmonte's Arrest (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Jeff Smith's Artistic Star (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Roger Varian is keen to come back quickly from the Blue Riband, the form of which received a major boost with the win of Waipiro (Ire) (Australia {GB}) here on Thursday. “He has looked great from the day he got back from Epsom and is in good form,” he said. “He looked very good in defeat and that bodes well for this week, the rest of the season and beyond hopefully. These races are not easy to win, but he looks like a horse who will take us to the big spots and we look forward to Friday.”

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Sakheer Routed Directly To Commonwealth Cup

'TDN Rising Star' Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who ran seventh in the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas earlier this month, is likely bound for the G1 Commonwealth Cup S. without a prep in June, according to trainer Roger Varian.

Owned by KHK Racing, the bay was named a Rising Star off of a victory at Haydock in September, and he ran out an open-length winner of the G2 Mill Reef S. at Newbury later that month. The Guineas was his first run at three.

“He's come out of the race well and most likely he will go straight to the Commonwealth Cup,” said Varian of his Royal Ascot-bound colt. “It was such a messy race the 2000 Guineas, it was almost a non-event for us. He made quite an eyecatching move in the race, but it was all happening away from him and maybe he just didn't get home the final 100 yards.

“We imagine a stiff six furlongs at Ascot is tailor-made for him.”

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