Equinties - Ebor Saturday

Gm Equinauts

Ebor day. The race this whole meeting is centred around.

The Irish love taking this one too. Mullins, de Bromhead and Murtagh have won this race in the last four years and Ger Lyons won it in 2019. You won’t go far wrong finding a nice Irish raider today.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

WILDLY UNDERESTIMATED

After the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes concluded yesterday, did anyone else look at ASFOORA’s SP of 11/1 and go ‘how the f*ck was she such a big price’?

We did. Prices like that almost put you off a bet.

The Australian mare won the King Charles III Stakes last year, and Henry Dwyer was fairly adamant and very public in voicing his confidence that he finally had her in even better shape this year.

It’s always nice to see trainer get rewarded when they put their balls on the line pre-race. A bit like us in the Lowther. Beautiful.

And if you missed his comments pre-race, then don’t miss his comments post-race - is head will be in a shed this morning! Bloody funny.

We could run through the race from start to finish and talk about why ASFOORA won, but we really don’t need to. She got into an A1 position early and won as she liked.
There are two things to discuss, however.

Firstly, we need to give a big hand to Dwyer and her owners. The Australian trainer admitted on Racing TV that due to her form at home and the logistics of bringing her over to the UK, if he owned the horse, he would never have boarded the plane. He would have instead kept her at home, which ultimately would have prevented her from becoming the first Australian raider to win the Nunthorpe since 2012.

But, they did bring her over, and initially, the vibes were a bit off about her interrupted prep. Ultimately, she ran like a horse who was a little bit below her best at both Ascot and at Goodwood the ground turned. Dwyer had his eyes set on York from a long way out, and he trained her perfectly to the absolute minute. Bravo, good sir.

The second thing to highlight is where next? Well, ground could rule her out of the Prix de l’Abbaye, and logistics could halt her from going to America, so that leaves the Group 1 Flying Five at the Curragh as her ideal next target. It makes a lot of sense, and Dwyer said so with Lydia Hislop on Racing TV.

ASFOORA’s win yesterday was just a feel good moment for the week, and those are nice things to have in our sport. Well done to all involved!

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