Equinties - BENt out of shape

Gm Equinauts

YOU DIDNT EVEN TRY, SAMMY, YOU DIDNT EVEN TRY.

People will tell me to wear a tin foil hat but the bookies liability on those three Walter Plant Hire horses would have been massive (especially given they were tipped in the newsletter). Makes you wonder…

Anyway, racing can’t be that bent! (Right?)

Let’s dive in.

Headline Roundup

BENt out of shape

22-year-old jockey Ben Sutton was rushed off to Wrexham Maelor Hospital yesterday following a horror fall at Bangor in the 2m1f handicap chase.  

His mount, KEPY BLANC, got the third fence all wrong and blundered his way through the obstacle, decking Sutton at speed.

If you were to throw a bag of spuds out a van at 40mph, honestly that’s what it looked like.

This impact knocked Sutton unconscious and he was attended to by medical staff on the track – the stewards deployed the yellow ‘stop race’ flag and the race was called a void contest.

The positive news was released a few hours after the incident as the trainer of KEPY BLANC, Phillip Hobbs, said: “Ben is conscious and he’s gone to Wrexham hospital for precautionary x-rays on his neck. Hopefully, he should be fine.” 

Late in the evening, Stan Sheppard posted a video of Ben awake and looking jolly in his hospital bed which is great to see. 

Unfortunately for the connections of KEPY BLANC, the seven-year-old gelding suffered fatal injuries and was put down after much attention. 

From everyone at BGP Capital, our thoughts are with Ben and his family, and of course the connections of KEPY BLANC.

More:

Wathnan Racing (who?) make big statement

Any of you eagle-eyed sales watchers may have seen Wathnan Racing purchase a large amount of horses from the HIT sale over the last few days.

The new venture, set up by Qatar buisness man and Ritz Hotel owner, Abdulhadi Mana Al-Hajri, have bought nine lots so far for a total outlay of 1,750,000 guineas - the previously mentioned PERSIAN ROYAL, INVERNESS, and BOLTHOLE are just some of the purchases.

The buying team, headed by Olly Tait (Twin Hills Stud owner in Australia) and Alban de Mieulle (Qatar’s Champion Trainer) are the boys putting in the hard work to secure these horses and rumour has it that the stable want to have 100-200 horses in training with them.

They have some serious cash behind them (£25m just for horses apparently) so it’s fair to say they can make a good go of it… they could buy enough horses to fill the Ritz!

Prices HITting the roof  

Further HIT (Horses In Training) sales news, Aidan O’Brien’s Irish Cesarewitch winner WATERVILLE sold for 410,000 guineas. 

Bought by the Australian bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster, the three-year-old will head off to the trainer Chris Waller in Australia - Coolmore bought the horse for €280,000 as a foal so they have made a good profit on him on top of the prize money earned from his seven runs.  

WATERVILLE was the top lot of day one on Monday, with Freddie & Martyn Meade’s CHAIRMAN the next most-expensive lot, selling for 400,000 guineas to Ciaron Maher Bloodstock - he will head to the Ciaron Maher & David Eustace stable in Australia.  

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Moving onto day two of the sale and I’M A GAMBLER rocketed to the top lot space as Charlie & Mark Johnston’s three-year-old was bought for a whopping 850,000 guineas by Tim Cohen of Red Baron’s Bard & Rancho Temescal, bidding on behalf of the Saudi Arabian outfit Najd Stud.  

The 110-rated son of NO NAY NEVER was last seen on track when winning the Listed Guisborough Stakes at Redcar earlier this month and has won nine of his 24 races for the Middleham-based team – from the way the Racing Post described the sale, this was a really intense bidding war which we recommend you read through.  

Elsewhere at the sale, Middleham Park Racing’s Group 3 winner EDDIE’S BOY sold for 320,000 guineas, Harry & Roger Charlton’s PERSIAN ROYAL fetched the second-highest winning bid of the day at 450,000 guineas (you now know who bought), and HIGH DEFINITION was one of eight horses sold by Ballydoyle yesterday – the GALILEO four-year-old was bought by Avenue Bloodstock and will be trained over hurdles by Joseph O’Brien.

And finally, something we wanted to highlight in some brilliant business for BGP Capital – DIRECT SECURITY, a two-year-old trained by Robyn Brisland, boasts a career record of 2-1-3, with the final one of those runs occurring in a Listed race at Newbury last Saturday. 

She is by SIOUX NATION out of a MASTERCRAFTSMAN mare and cost just £2,500 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale in 2021 – he went through the Park Paddocks ring on Monday and was bought by Nasser Bin Omairah for 135,000 guineas.

This just shows what a good level of patience and a bit of TLC can do in the long run – congrats to Robyn for his shrewd buying and trusting us to do a good job with her.

Irish Racing strikes deal with Racing TV 

Following unrest in media contract renewals over the last few months, Horse Racing Ireland announced yesterday that Irish Racing will remain exclusively on Racing TV until at least 2029. 

Sports Information Services and Racecourse Media Group won the bid to show Irish Racing for the foreseeable after Sky Sports Racing had shown an interest in re-purchasing the contract – At The Races was the home of Irish racing until the end of 2018 before Racing TV took over the coverage.  

Are you happy with this decision? Which broadcaster did you want Irish Racing to be shown on? Comment underneath our newsletter tweet on Twitter (if you care… I don’t so probably won’t read your comments anyway).

Chepstow bumper preview

This doesn’t look the strongest of bumpers on paper, nothing like yesterday's. It is a mares bumper though - anything can happen with women!

Honeyball’s I GIORNI has been well backed into fave and I know why - Honeyball LOVES a bumper. He’d have the gun to his horses heads to have them ready for a bumper (for them to more than likely then need a break and be shit over hurdles). Anyway, I don’t like it’s ped.

The best horses (on blood) for this race are Nicholls’ and Kings.

Nicholls’ LIME AVENUE is very well-related. He’s a half to two high class bumper winners in ROGUE ANGEL and FIRE IN HIS EYES (both ran to >110 in bumpers for Gigginstown). The drift says perhaps not ready but I wouldn’t want to be on another horse.

King’s PASSIONATE PURSUIT is the back up bet in this, the 12’s hedge if you will. On ped she should be suited to the long galloping home straight of Chepstow which tests stamina.

Our view: Nicholls’ has every right to be a monster. I’d play this girl at 11/4 and small hedge with King’s at 12’s.

Risk On

Bets will be posted on Twitter.