Equinties - Havlin Sweet on William

Author

BGP Capital
May 24, 2024

Equinties

Gm Equinauts

“I definitely think he’ll get two and a half miles”- Rab Havlin. SWEET WILLIAM and indeed our bad bet CAIUS CHORISTER both look Gold Cup bound.

SWEET WILLIAM’s brother is HURRICANE LANE who won the Irish Derby and St Leger. His dam is the Fillies and Mares champion SEAL OF APPROVAL and the family is all Aga Khan bred including Harzand and EMILY UPJOHN both by SWEET WILLIAM’s sire SEA THE STARS.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

SANDOWN HIGHLIGHTS

The race of the day was the long distance spat betwee SWEET WILLIAM and CAIUS CHORISTER which we unfortunately came out the wrong side of but there were others performances to note throughout the evening.

SCAT DADDY sire line is all speed; SERGEI PROKOFIEV now is showing his talents as a sire of speedy progeny like JUSTIFY and SIOUX NATION have before him. A first stakes winner for the sire who is standing alongside SHOWCASING and HAVANA GREY. ENCHANTING EMPRESS is going to love the Ascot up hill finish in the Queen Mary. She probably stays 6f, Dominic Ffrench Davis has always said she’s an Albany filly but now leaning more towards the Queen Mary.

It’s worth noting how well Amy Murphy does with cheap yearlings. ROCK HUNTER was a £32,000 yearling and finished a gallant second in the National Stakes. The same owner and trainer have HOT DARLING who cost 25k at Bk3 last year and he has won a stakes race in France and looks Royal Ascot bound.

The Heron Stakes was a bit of an upset with ALMAQAM winning for Buick, he is bred on the magical SHAMARDAL/GREEN DESERT line as he is out of a CAPE CROSS mare and by LOPE DE VEGA. The Ed Walker trained 3yo’s dam was placed in the Group 1 EP Taylor Stakes and this lad now looks towards either the Gr1 St James Palace or Hampton Court Stakes at the Royal Meeting. FRANKEL’s brother KIKKULI finished second and has ‘stacks of improvement’ when the ground drys out. REMAADD was disappointing but may not have liked the ground and possibly bounced after a good run in the Sandown Classic trial.

CUTTING FROM CLIPPER

Yesterday marked the final day of the Goffs UK Spring Sale at Doncaster, a day that saw Clipper Logistics say goodbye to their time in National Hunt racing.

The top lot of the horses sold by Clipper Logistics was MOSSY FEN PARK who made £235,000; Henry de Bromhead re-bought the horse and he is set to be syndicated.

On the dispersal, Ollie Fowlston of Dullingham Park said: “Steve Parkin wants to concentrate on the Flat string. Obviously with the addition of Dullingham Park we’re going to be concentrating on the stallion ranks too. We have six boxes there and two residents at the moment, so we’d like to try to fill the other four boxes in the coming years.”

SPORTING GLORY was the other notable sale from Clipper as Mouse O’Ryan and Gordon Elliott fought off AJ O’Neill to buy him for £120,000.

Despite his age of eight, he’s had just four runs for Pat Fahy and was second to ROMEO COOLIO in a Fairyhouse bumper in January.

“He’s had very few runs for his age,” said O’Ryan. “He was second to Romeo Coolio second time out. He gave him a real fright, which we didn’t expect, but he proved it was no fluke when he won the next day. It’s no secret the regard we hold Romeo Coolio in, so when this lad came up we were anxious to get him.

“He was thrown in at the deep end on his hurdling debut and that was a very reasonable run. He’s going to Gordon and there’s no owner yet, but I’d be surprised if I haven’t got him sold by the time I get on the plane home!”

NO DERBY

The Derby picture took a bit of a hit yesterday as William Haggas confirmed that the impressive Dante winner, ECONOMICS, would not run.

Having been the 5/2 second-favourite after his six-length success on the Knavesmire, the three-year-old by NIGHT OF THUNDER will not head to Epsom next Saturday in favour of keeping him to 10 furlongs.

Despite this plan to keep him at 1m2f, he won’t head to the Prix du Jockey Club in Chantilly on the same weekend either as connections want to give him more time.

Haggas said: "After discussions with his owner His Highness Sheikh Isa, we have decided that Economics will not run in either the English or the French Derby next weekend.

"We think that the turnaround is very tight for both races and feel he is still maturing. As such, we will give him more time and prepare him for an exciting summer campaign over ten furlongs.

"At this stage, we feel it is unlikely that he will race over a mile and a half this year.

"The whole point of taking him out was I didn't think it was the right track and the right race for him at this stage of his career. He's a great big, immature horse. And I stick by that. Winning the Derby is of course everyone's dream, we all want to win it, but it takes a type.

With their preference for 10 furlongs this season, one can imagine that the Coral-Eclipse (which he’ll have to be supplemented for at a cost of £37,500), Juddmonte International, Irish Champion Stakes, and Qipco Champion Stakes will be the logical targets.

PEDIGREE SPOTLIGHT

Karl Burke sends out TOOMUCHFORME, a daughter of TOO DARN HOT and owned by Newton Anner Stud. The same connections had DARNATION, also by TOO DARN HOT and trained by Karl Burke win first time out at Haydock last year. That filly turned out to be well above average when winning the Gr2 May Hill Stakes at Donny. This filly today, is out of a DANSILI mare who is a full sister to Gr3 winner BERLIN TANGO and their dam FANTASIA was a seriously classy girl. Placed in the Fillies Mile and won the Prestige Stake as a 2yo, then trained on and was placed in the French 1000 Guineas and Gr1 Just A Game Stakes.

We wonder if this filly today has as much class?

VAUGHAN SUSPENDED

And finally, in what was a surprising piece of news yesterday, Tim Vaughan was handed a suspended six-month ban after BELLS OF PETERBORO tested positive for a banned substance.

The nine-year-old won at Chepstow in April by a short-head, though a subsequent drugs test revealed he had tested positive for TCA, a synthetic corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory and painkilling properties that is allowed in training but banned on racedays.

The reason we want to highlight this news is to spread the word about the case as it would be easy to see something like this an instantly think Vaughan is a bad guy.

However, in a statement on X, more clarity came to the surface as it was revealed the grey gelding had been given TCA 26 days before his race at Chepstow.

Connections assumed that the injection of TCA would have been cleared out of his system by the time he ran at Chepstow, but this did not happen and this whole event is a case of non-malicious mistakes being made.

RISK ON

After leveraging absolutely nothing yesterday (we’ve never had some many seconds in a month), there are no standout bets today and will wait for tomorrows big bet.