Siskin | Horse Racing Free Tips

This Side Up: Euros to Dollars

Well, we know that such Europeans as have been able to make the trip–another lockdown began in England on Thursday–won’t be in the slightest danger of catching anything on the dirt track.
If we can meanwhile break the shackles of the pandemic as well, maybe someone might feel sufficiently liberated finally to have another go next year. But at least the raiders should again be in the thick of things over on the grass. Now that the Breeders’ Cup returns to Kentucky, moreover, they will be expecting an especially congenial environment, from the surface to the climate.
Certainly they had a chastening couple of days at Santa Anita last year, when only Iridessa (Ruler Of The World) in the GI Filly and Mare Turf rescued a whitewash. True, it had not looked a vintage group; but even their previous visit to Keeneland, in 2015, for a long time renewed what has sometimes felt like a perennial reproof against complacency. The way Hit It A Bomb (War Front) pulled the opener out of the fire set a misleading tone, with the home team then holding out until the very last grass race the following day.

The duel that restored European self-esteem that year was contested by Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}), who had just won the Arc, and Found (Ire) (Galileo {GB}), who would win it the following year. So nobody should be under any illusions about the standards required, especially with the ongoing expansion of the American turf program.
That said, the Euros plainly know their metier and must be weighed by anyone handicapping the grass races. Here, then, are three that can run better than their likely odds. That is saying quite something, in the case of the first, but I think she should be closer to even money.

MAGICAL (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) GI Longines BC Turf) 5-2
No mystery about Magical on tour: she showed her aptitude for the demands of this race when giving Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) herself a scare at Churchill in 2018. But while the big discrepancy in transatlantic odds concerns Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), who is challenging for favoritism in their homeland, my feeling is that even a respectful morning line understates Magical’s prospects. She sets a formidable standard and I’d be pretty amazed if she were beaten.

While unable to win for a third year running on Qipco British Champions’ Day, she only got going late behind two that exult in muddy conditions. She had previously exchanged verdicts with the top-class Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), again over 10 furlongs, and in terms of racing rhythm looks increasingly hungry for a return to this distance for only the third time in 15 starts since her run at Churchill. It can only help, moreover, that the scheduling of the Ascot fixture was this year slightly less parochial than usual, permitting her a third week to recover. Not that she particularly needs it: her battle with Enable in Louisville was her third start in three countries in 27 days.

In contrast Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) arrives after a very light season, having only resumed in August. In that time she has plainly reached a new peak, without yet registering the kind of numbers routinely posted by Magical. While the latter’s sophomore stablemate Mogul (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has now cracked that long-expected Group 1 success (3,400,000gns yearling; stable jockey’s choice at Epsom), the fact is that the only runner to have touched Magical’s regular level even once is Lord North (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), whose solution to a poor run the other day is to try a new trip.
A demanding pace might conjure a surprising finish from German filly Donjah (Ger) (Teofilo {Ire}) at monster odds. Overall, however, Magical looks a very secure knot to keep those Pick Six lines under control.

CADILLAC (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) GI BC Juvenile Turf (presented by Coolmore America) 6-1
As his name suggests, this guy should get all the traction he needs on an American circuit. Because while even the bare form of two reverses in soft going would give him every chance here, Cadillac has been most impressive on both starts on sounder terrain.

On debut he burst no fewer than nine lengths clear of Ebeko (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}), who has since done sufficiently well for new owners in California to follow him here for a rematch. Having won so easily, Cadillac was still green when turned over at odds-on next time, but the half-length winner went on to show his comfort in the softer ground that day when recently winning a Group 1 in similar conditions.

Restored to better conditions, Cadillac quickened clear of another subsequent Group 1 winner in Van Gogh (American Pharoah), and was well fancied when lining up for the premier juvenile prize in Europe, the G1 Darley Dewhurst S. Unfortunately the going was against him and, though he travelled smoothly through the race, he did not really pick up under pressure and was beaten a little over four lengths into fifth.

His nimble action and build together suggest that he will be well suited by the demands of this race, and he represents a trainer who has made an extraordinary impact since adapting her skills from jump racing to equal effect on the Flat.

Ballydoyle, predictably, has an aristocratic contender in Battleground (War Front), the first foal of Found, but as it stands his form has not worked out anything like as well as that of Cadillac.

LOPE Y FERNANDEZ (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (GI Fanduel BC Mile presented by PDJF) 30-1
Okay, this is a bit of a wildcard. We were mad on the chance here of that remarkable mare, One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), before her unfortunate scratching. And offering this creature in her stead depends on a bit of a crackpot theory. But the Mile is ever a crapshoot, and it might just be that Lope Y Fernandez can respond to a puzzle very different to those he has been trying to piece together all season.

He flashed big ability when coasting through the field to lead in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas on his reappearance, but didn’t see the race out. Worn down into third behind Siskin (First Defence), he has duly spent all his time since at shorter distances. He has run very well once or twice, notably when beaten under a length into third in the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, but there is a suspicion that straight tracks might not suit his style ideally. He might just be one of those that needs things to fall right: a waiting ride, through congestion, in the chaos of a turning mile.

Much his best efforts have come on a faster surface, but he showed enough life in two sprints on heavy ground to suggest that he remains in form this fall. He’s got a great base of experience now, which you need here, and will benefit from plenty more of that in the saddle. It’s a roll of the dice, for sure, but by the same token he would be an absolute blowout at the windows.
Siskin has not really built on that impressive display at the Curragh, and the other Classic winner in the field certainly looked unlucky not to finish in front of him when they crossed swords at Goodwood in the summer. Kameko (Kitten’s Joy) also put in the better rehearsal of the pair, last time out, but his performance round Goodwood—one of Britain’s sharpest tracks—sends mixed messages. He sure can travel, through a race, but couldn’t get his jockey out of trouble and you’d be worried if they were to get trapped on the inside.

With Lope Y Fernandez, perversely enough, that might be just the scenario we’re looking for. And the odds, in contrast, will make ample allowance for things not quite working out.

The post This Side Up: Euros to Dollars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Siskin A Transatlantic Juddmonte Masterpiece

LEXINGTON, KY–In the 36-year history of the Breeders’ Cup, few owners have been so intertwined with the event as has Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms been. The operation’s 80 starters at the meeting are bettered only by Godolphin and the Coolmore partners, while its seven winners and over $16-million in prizemoney at the Breeders’ Cup is only slightly inferior to the record accrued by Coolmore.

Juddmonte and the Breeders’ Cup, in fact, have nearly come of age together. At the time that the inaugural Breeders’ Cup was staged at Hollywood Park in 1984, Prince Khalid had owned racehorses less than five years. The Saudi Royal had his first runner at the second Breeders’ Cup at Aqueduct in 1985, when Queen Anne, Sussex S. and Prix du Moulin winner Rousillon contested the Mile, but it wasn’t to be that day for the favourite, who settled for ninth after a luckless trip. Rousillon went on to gain further aclaim as the sire of Vintage Crop, the first Northern Hemisphere-trained horse to win the G1 Melbourne Cup in 1993.

Though that maiden voyage didn’t pan out as hoped, Prince Khalid was not deterred and tripled down on the 1986 ‘Cup at Santa Anita, lending the event some serious star power in the form of Dancing Brave. Still regarded as one of the best Prince Khalid has ever raced on either side of the Atlantic, Dancing Brave came into the Breeders’ Cup Turf off wins in the 2000 Guineas, Eclipse S., King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Struck in the eye by a clod of turf in-running, Dancing Brave checked in fourth.

It is remarkable, in hindsight, that it took Juddmonte 16 years and 24 starters to break its Breeders’ Cup duck, but it did so at last at Belmont Park in 2001 when the G1 Coronation S. winner Banks Hill (GB) (Danehill) ran away with the Filly & Mare Turf by 5 1/2 lengths for Andre Fabre and Olivier Peslier. Juddmonte repeated the dose in the same race four years later with Banks Hill’s full-sister Intercontinental (GB), remarkably back at Belmont Park. Intercontinental’s foundations had been laid by Fabre, but by that stage she had been transferred to Prince Khalid’s beloved Bobby Frankel.

Juddmonte’s Ventura (Chester House) provided Frankel with one of his last major wins in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint of 2008; the legendary trainer died of cancer just over a year later aged 68. And while Frankel’s famous equine personification-so meticulously chosen by Prince Khalid-was never himself given the chance to contest the meeting at which his namesake won six races, Juddmonte did grace the 2018 edition of the Breeders’ Cup with another of its true legends: the 11-time Group 1 winner Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who at Churchill Downs became the first horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf (or any Breeders’ Cup race, for that matter) in the same year. Add to that a GI Breeders’ Cup Mile win by Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) on the same card, and it was the kind of day that had been years in the making for Juddmonte at the meeting that it had perennially thrown so much support behind; in the interim between Ventura and Enable, Prince Khalid sent out six-time Group 1 winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) to take the 2009 Filly & Mare Turf-she was, incidentally, trained by Frankel’s late conditioner Sir Henry Cecil–and its great American champion Arrogate to win the 2016 GI Classic.

After sitting out the 2019 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, Team Juddmonte returns in 2020 with the formidable duo of Siskin (First Defence) for the Mile and Tacitus (Tapit) for the Classic. Though the pair, both homebreds, are trained an ocean apart, they have much more in common than simply their pink and turquoise silks; they are both descendants of Silver Star (GB) (Zafonic), a Juddmonte homebred out of Monroe (Sir Ivor), a foundation mare for Khalid Abdullah who was part of the very first batch of fillies he accrued in the late 1970s and a daughter of the excellent producer Best In Show. Silver Star is the second dam of Siskin and the third dam of Tacitus. While Silver Star’s branch of the Monroe line includes her G1 Dewhurst S.-winning sire son Xaar (GB) and Tacitus’s five-time Grade I-winning dam Close Hatches (by Siskin’s sire First Defence), Monroe has had a far-reaching impact in other directions, too, with other descendants including sire brothers Cityscape (GB) (Selkirk) and Bated Breath (GB) (Dansili {GB}), and last year’s G1 St Leger winner Logician (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Rising Tornado and Bird Flown (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) were born six years apart and on different continents, but both ended up in the yard of Andre Fabre. Each managed one win in her relatively brief career, but their pedigrees meant that they were given a chance in the elite Juddmonte broodmare population. More specifically, they were both expatriated back to Juddmonte’s American satellite to patronize resident sire First Defence, a Grade I-winning sprinter by Unbridled’s Song out of Honest Lady (Seattle Slew), a Grade I-winning daughter of another iconic Juddmonte producer, Toussaud (El Gran Senor). Completely unsurprisingly, it turned out that the team at Juddmonte knew just what they were doing: Rising Toronado’s first foal was Close Hatches and she produced two other winners by First Defence including the listed winner and GI Kentucky Oaks third Lockdown before First Defence was sold to stand in Saudi Arabia.

Bird Flown, meanwhile, visited First Defence in his final two seasons in Kentucky, the second mating producing Siskin. He has proven an embodiment of the potency of the Juddmonte blood on both sides of the Atlantic being by a sire from the third generation of a family flawlessly cultivated in Kentucky and out of a mare that brings together two of the farm’s European foundation mares in Monroe and Bahamian. The mould was somewhat broken with Siskin when he was entrusted to Ger Lyons, and that rising Irish trainer has held up his end of the bargain with aplomb, sending the colt through an unbeaten, Group 1-winning juvenile campaign and onto Classic success at three. A win at Keeneland on Saturday would place him in rarefied air, indeed.

The stories continue to be written, too, for Bird Flown and Rising Tornado. The former provided Juddmonte’s six-time Group 1 winner Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) with his first winner in September in Talacre-she, too, is in the care of Ger Lyons. Rising Tornado has a yearling colt from the first of just three crops by Arrogate, and after failing to produce a live foal this season was covered by Quality Road.

The post Siskin A Transatlantic Juddmonte Masterpiece appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Lir Can Fly, But Can He Go The Mile?

LEXINGTON, KY–Tuesday brought about another bright but cool morning in Lexington, and the European Breeders’ Cup contingent-all bar the Ballydoyle brigade, which touched down in Lexington late on Monday evening and will be ensconced in quarantine until Thursday-had another opportunity to stretch their legs at Keeneland. The English and Irish Guineas winners Kameko (Kitten’s Joy) and Siskin (First Defence) were among those who took to the training track for the second straight day, with Kameko once again catching the eye in a light gallop just as dawn broke. Siskin once again displayed his well being by throwing in a periodic hop and swivelling his head to take in all the sights as he went about his work, but the Ger Lyons trainee looked a picture of good health and appears to have taken his travels well.

Five Europeans-GII Juvenile Turf Sprint entrant Ubettabelieveit (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) in addition to the fillies Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead), Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire})) and One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus})–tested the Keeneland turf course for the first time on Tuesday.

G1 Prince of Wales’s S. winner Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was a standout among the John Gosden trio as he took to the training track alongside stablemates Terebellum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Mehdaayih (GB) (Frankel {GB}), and the GI Turf contender traveled enthusiastically on the bridle without being overeager through an easy gallop. Trainer Ralph Beckett, having arrived in Lexington on Monday night, was aboard a pony to oversee his GI Juvenile Turf runners New Mandate (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) and Devilwala (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). The G2 Royal Lodge S. winner New Mandate galloped freely ahead of his barnmate Devilwala, who was fourth in the G1 Dewhurst S. last out. Both horses are campaigned by owners relatively new to the game: Marc Chan bought New Mandate from a partnership headed by Beckett and Alex Elliott after a handicap win at Sandown in August, while Devilwala is among a talented bunch of 2-year-olds for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing.

New Mandate landed in gate two for Friday’s Juvenile Turf at Monday evening’s post position draw and Devilwala in 13, the only horse to the inside of Qatar Racing’s The Lir Jet (Ire) (Prince of Lir {Ire}). The Lir Jet’s trainer Michael Bell was on hand to supervise his first Breeders’ Cup starter on Tuesday, having landed the evening before, and he was philosophical about the draw.

“The draw could have been kinder, but people seem to say you’re better off drawn wide than out low. Time will tell,” he said. “I watched the [2015 Juvenile Turf] when Hit It A Bomb won here, and he won from post 14 and had a great ride from Ryan Moore, so we hope Oisin [Murphy] can do the same.”

The Lir Jet skipped over the training track for the second straight morning on Tuesday, and Bell said he is pleased with how the colt has taken his journey.

“He seems very happy in himself and he’s eating well, which is the most important thing when they’ve traveled, because it can be a bit disruptive for them,” the trainer said. “But he looks in very good form when he’s out on the track in the morning. We’ve kept him on the training track just to keep a lid on him but he couldn’t have traveled better.

It was somewhat serendipitous circumstances that saw The Lir Jet land in Bell’s yard earlier this year; the colt was bought privately by Bell’s son Nick from pinhooker Robson Aguiar after the breeze-up sales were delayed in the spring. Sheikh Fahad came calling after The Lir Jet set a five-furlong track record when winning at Yarmouth on debut two days after racing in Britain resumed on June 3, and the colt carried Qatar Racing’s colours when beating Wesley Ward’s Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) in the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot. The Lir Jet, from the first crop of Ballyhane Stud’s fellow Norfolk winner Prince of Lir, was somewhat unlucky to be beaten when second in the G2 Prix Robert Papin on July 19 and the G1 Phoenix S. on Aug. 9, and according to Bell didn’t quite handle the Newmarket dip when fifth in the G1 Middle Park S. on Sept. 26. He steps up to a mile for the first time on Friday.

“He was a bit unlucky in the photograph in the Papin when it was heads up, heads down; the dice didn’t roll the right way for him because he was in front just before and just after the line,” Bell said. “He ran in Ireland in the Phoenix S. and stayed on very well but got slightly hampered and finished off very well over six furlongs. He ran at Newmarket and was a bit unbalanced coming down the hill, so this flatter track will suit him better. But he finished off his race very well over six, so we’re hopeful he’ll get the mile.”

“It would be a fantastic achievement,” Bell said of a potential Breeders’ Cup win. “It’s not going to be easy; we’re under no pretensions that he’s a warm-order favourite. We’re taking a punt at the trip, but if he does stay he’ll be in the mix because he has the class and he can certainly run to a higher rating over a mile if he stays. But we’ll only find that out on Friday.”

The post Lir Can Fly, But Can He Go The Mile? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Euro Raiders Break The Ice At Keeneland

LEXINGTON, KY–With temperatures plunging into subzero depths overnight on Sunday, there was a truly wintery feel at Keeneland on Monday morning to coincide with the release from quarantine-a concept that many more of their human custodians can relate to in 2020–of most of the European Breeders’ Cup raiders. (Click here for a video of European Breeders’ Cup contenders training on Monday)

As tractors worked over the main dirt course attempting to thaw it, training was restricted in the early morning hours to Keeneland’s training track, and the Jessica Harrington-trained fillies Cayenne Pepper (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and Oodnadatta (Ire) (Australia {GB}) were the first to step onto the track at 6:30 a.m. for one lap at a trot. They were followed shortly thereafter by John Gosden’s trio of Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Mehdaayih (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Terebellum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who completed a similar exercise.

G1 2000 Guineas winner Kameko (Kitten’s Joy) appeared in rude health as he completed a lap each at a trot and a canter, and his work rider Maddy O’Meara said, “He seems in really good form. He traveled over well and is settled. I think he was pleased to get out onto the training track for a leg stretch.”

Kameko–who is now a stone’s throw from where he was born and raised at Calumet Farm bordering Keeneland and the sales pavilion where he was bought by Qatar Racing for $90,000 two years ago-is looking to continue his renaissance in the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile after breaking a string of fourth-place finishes in Group 1 company over the summer with a victory in Newmarket’s G2 Joel S. on Sept. 25.

Lord North, meanwhile, looks to return to the form that saw him win Royal Ascot’s G1 Prince of Wales’s S. in June in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf. The 4-year-old gelding ran a creditable third behind Ghaiyyath (Ire) and Magical (Ire)-and ahead of Kameko-in the G1 Juddmonte International on Aug. 19 before trailing in last over the soft going in the G1 Champion S. on Oct. 17.

Lord North’s challengers in the mile and a half Turf will include not only his stablemate Mehdaayih but also the Aga Khan’s progressive 4-year-old filly Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), who has built on a trio of pattern-race wins last year at three to win back-to-back Group 1s at ParisLongchamp in the Prix Vermeille and Prix de l’Opera over a mile and a half and mile and a quarter, respectively, while giving weight to top 3-year-old fillies Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) and Raabihah (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Tarnawa followed the Jessica Harrington-trained Cadillac (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) onto the training track shortly after 7 a.m. The latter was among a slew of contenders for the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf out stretching their legs, and those also included the Ralph Beckett-trained duo of New Mandate (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) and Devilwala (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). The former looks to build on a three-race win streak that includes the Listed Flying Scotsman S. and the G2 Royal Lodge S., while the latter comes into this off a respectable fourth in the soft-ground G1 Dewhurst S. at 100-1. Michael Bell, who brings Qatar Racing’s The Lir Jet (Ire) (Prince of Lir {Ire}), is looking for his first win at the Breeders’ Cup. That lean and leggy bay enjoyed a canter around the training track in the slipstream of Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s formidable mare One Master (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) just before 8 a.m.

The Frederic Rossi-trained Sealiway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) looks to make it back-to-back Group 1 wins in the Juvenile Turf off an eight-length score in the G1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardere in what was one of the most eye-catching performances on Arc day, and his jockey Mickael Barzalona was on course to watch the colt train. Barzalona, who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf aboard Talismanic (Medaglia d’Oro) in 2017, said, “I flew over on Friday and I’m delighted to be here. The weather is colder than I expected but its brilliant to be out at the training track to see Sealiway. I’m very much looking forward to riding him and the plan is to sit on him tomorrow or Wednesday.”

The winner of the last three editions of the G1 Prix de la Foret on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe card, the 6-year-old One Master just doesn’t seem to know how to run a bad race and was beaten a half-length in the G1 British Champions Sprint S. when backing up to six furlongs over the soft ground at Ascot on Oct. 17. She lines up on Saturday in the Mile, the race in which she was fifth, beaten a length, two years ago at Churchill Downs behind Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}).

One Master will have to contend with not only the 2000 Guineas winner Kameko in the Mile, but also this year’s winner of the Irish equivalent, Siskin (First Defence), who was fresh on the training track on Monday, shying slightly as he jogged past the assembled railbirds before settling into a professional canter. Juddmonte homebred Siskin-a talented by quirky individual who has some questions to answer after playing up in the stalls last out prior to finishing fourth in the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp-is a first Breeders’ Cup starter for trainer Ger Lyons. Mile contender Safe Voyage (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}), likewise, is a first runner at the meeting for trainer John Quinn, and the gelding is, remarkably, rounding into his best form at age seven with wins in this season’s G2 City of York S. and G2 Boomerang S. followed by a close third behind One Master in the Foret.

There are, then, quite a number of European raiders who will be writing exciting new chapters for their trainers should they emerge victorious, and another of those is the rapidly progressive Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). She is the first Breeders’ Cup starter for her Newmarket-based trainer James Fanshawe, and while many of the other European-based trainers will arrive in the Bluegrass over the coming days, Fanshawe and his wife Jacko were on hand to oversee their G1 Prix Jean Romanet winner’s exit from quarantine and subsequent canter on Monday morning.

Alison Swinburn’s Audarya was beaten a nose in her lone start at two and showed plenty of promise last year at three when winning twice at novice and handicap level and finishing second a further three times, including in the Listed Prix Coronation going a mile at Saint-Cloud. After a pair of off-the-board finishes over that same trip at listed level to start her current campaign in June, Audarya flourished when stepped up to a mile and a quarter, winning a Newcastle handicap prior to the Romanet at 48-1. She showed that effort was no fluke when finishing a length behind Tarnawa in third in the Prix de l’Opera.

“After she won the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville we thought ‘if she comes out of it in one piece we’ll go to the Prix de l’Opera and then the Breeders’ Cup,'” Fanshawe said of the filly’s path to Keeneland. “This season has been completely different with COVID disrupting everything, but her owner Alison Swinburn was also keen to go for it, and she’s got a lot of attributes that should suit the race.”

“She’s a very good-looking filly; from the moment she came in she was a very good-looking yearling and she always showed ability,” Fanshawe added. “She was a little bit quirky in some ways but she’s quite a big, rangy filly and she’s taken time to come to herself. She nearly won at two and at three she took a while to get going, and I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that she’s been much better going a little bit further than the mile; she likes a strongly run mile but she was a bit keen as a 3-year-old, so we went to a mile and a quarter then came back. And since we stepped her back up to a mile and a quarter for her prep race for Deauville she’s been more effective. And I think she’s got stronger as well.”

Fanshawe has been training for over 30 years and has orchestrated the careers of Group 1 winners like Soviet Song (Ire), The Tin Man (GB), Seal of Approval (GB) and Society Rock (Ire). He said he has always hoped to have a runner at the Breeders’ Cup, and a myriad of factors collided to make it happen with Audarya, including perhaps the later start to the racing season necessitated by COVID.

“I think anyone who trains racehorses would aspire to have a runner at the Breeders’ Cup,” he said, “It’s something you always have in the back of your mind, but it always comes quite late in our season and it’s not a meeting you can go to as an afterthought. We’d been thinking about it for a while and hopefully everything goes smoothly for her.

“Keeneland is more European; it has a similar climate to what we’d have at home this time of year. I had a walk of the course this morning and it looked in really good nick. In theory conditions should be good for the European horses, the weather and the track.”

Another British-based trainer already on hand was Nigel Tinkler, who put his GI Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Ubettabelieveit (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) through his paces himself. Tinkler, a former jumps jockey and successful trainer both on the flat and over jumps, like Fanshawe sends out his first Breeders’ Cup starter. Ubettabelieveit, the winner of the G2 Flying Childers S. over five furlongs at Doncaster on Sept. 11, is one of two representatives at the meeting for breeder Ringfort Stud in addition to GI Juvenile Fillies’ Turf contender Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), who was also on track on Monday. Both subsequent pattern-race winners that were bought for €35,000 and €1,000, respectively, as foals, the Ringfort-bred runners do, indeed, give smaller operators a reason to believe.

The last of the European contingent to arrive at Keeneland will be the Aidan O’Brien-trained runners, who were scheduled to touch down around 8 p.m. on Monday and will therefore not make an on-track appearance until Thursday.

The post Euro Raiders Break The Ice At Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post