Equinties - in their element

Gm Equinauts

It’s Breeders Cup week and that means we’ll be sending out a special edition for premium subscribers.

A tip from us, we’ll be betting the Breeders Cup on the Tote. Why?

The value. You stake will be direct in the US pool and not surprisingly, the value on British runners is far greater than the sports books here as US punters steam in to the form they know and study.

Last year, there were 37 runners from the UK and Ireland and the US pool return was bigger than the UK industry on 81%.

The Tote is the clever play.

Tote | Offers

Let’s dive in!

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

IN THEIR ELEMENT

There are so many things that the Breeders’ Cup gets right, and we’re going to name some of these things right now.

For American trainers and European trainers, it has a race for pretty much every Group/Grade 1 horse without creating too many options that means big clashes get avoided. Yes, this is a comparison to Cheltenham.

Turf or dirt, five furlongs or 12 furlongs, most horses get their wish in America. Maybe the proper, proper stayers miss out, but they have the Melbourne Cup or races in Meydan in the new year to worry about if they really can’t wait for the European Flat calendar.

They also seem to really make it like a holiday for trainers, jockeys, owners, and stable staff, which we’re sure they’re very appreciative of, and best of all, their media coverage has to be the best in the sport. Like British Champions Day, they sell their coverage to all the major news broadcasters. It’s not exclusive to Sky or Racing TV; if you have money in your pocket, you can show it, and they certainly give brilliant value for money for their customers and their customers’ customers.

Let’s, again, compare to the Cheltenham Festival. This comparison may be slightly unfair as the Breeders’ Cup is a global event, whereas Cheltenham (as much as it is very important) probably isn’t viewed by as many people worldwide. But, for now, just indulge us.

For the Breeders’ Cup, pre-race workouts, morning routines, and behind-the-scenes content are everywhere you look.

They really just want to show the fans the horses, which sounds simple. They gain plaudits for doing so, and the sport gains more traction. Win-win.

The big media companies don’t show the same volume of behind-the-scenes coverage at Cheltenham as they do in America because the Breeders’ Cup excels in their allotted media time with trainers and jockeys. ‘Press duties’ will be put into every big trainer’s calendar which is why Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing get really detailed interviews with Aidan O’Brien, Charlie Appleby, and more in the lead-up to the big event!

This doesn’t happen in the UK. Press conferences with big trainers happen after the Grand National and the Gold Cup, but that’s it. Of course, journalists in our sport get paid to contact and visit trainers throughout the year, but the same could be said for football, rugby, cricket, F1 etc, and they have press conferences, which surely makes life similar for the press and for the sporting figures.

The Breeders’ Cup gives people easy access to get proper stories, like the news about SOVEREIGNTY, who could miss the Breeders’ Cup due to a fever.

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell, we think the Breeders’ Cup do it right, and while we’re talking about the event, here are the flash headlines. Firstly, Charlie Appleby gives EL CORDOBES a chance in the Turf, even though the yard has the legendary REBEL’S ROMANCE…

He also thinks we’ll see a different NOTABLE SPEECH than the one we saw last year…

And Aidan O’Brien is still towing the party line regarding PRECISE being the ‘most special filly he’s ever trained’…

You’ve got to hand it to Aidan; he really can put people away with quotes like this.
He continued: "She's a very unique filly. She looks like something I'm not sure we've ever had before. She has just kept upgrading and upgrading all the time. We've never had anything win the Fillies' Mile on the bridle the way she did.

"She was a little bit lazy going into the Dip and Roger, who rides her at home, says that's the way she is. She gets lazy. She has been getting very relaxed and the more relaxed she is, the better she is getting. She's thriving physically.

"This is going to be tough, and the draw makes it even tougher.

"She's just very classy. She relaxes, stays and handles fast ground. She seems to have it all, but her draw has added a whole new dimension. She's probably going to end up with a lot of work to do, isn't she? It will be very interesting to see what happens."

It is pretty ballsy to put everything you’ve said about the horse on the line at the Breeders’ Cup, a place that can throw up surprising performances and results. Fair play to Aidan, but from what he’s saying, it’s like she can’t get beat.

RACES TO FOLLOW

As we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, the opening two races at Ffos Las promised to be pretty decent affairs. And, to their credit, they didn’t disappoint. That’s because Ben Pauling nearly had a maiden hurdle double, and Philip Hobbs & Johnson White walked away from the day with a potential Grade 1 horse. Yep, they think he could be that good.

Let’s start with STARZAND, as the Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle was mooted by White in his post-race interview. He wasn’t overly strong in the market (odds-on to 11/8), and after the second-last, it looked like DIG DEEP for Pauling was about to swoop on by with a strong challenge. DIG DEEP didn’t stop; STARZAND just gathered himself up and went again. It was impressive.

He did get the second-last wrong, which left him a bit off kilter, and this potentially led to DIG DEEP mounting a visually strong challenge approaching the last. But still, the runner-up pulled two-and-a-quarter lengths away from GEE FORCE FLYER, an Olly Murphy-trained novice who was fairly solid in the market for his rules debut, so the form of the race does look good on initial assessment.

A few people on Racing X have already said that the race will be worth following going forward, and we have to reiterate this point. We also think the opening maiden hurdle will be quite strong, as KALKBRENNER delivered on what he had been promising at home:

The field was also strung out like washing. Those first three all look pretty smart.
Anyway, back to STARZAND, in his post-race interview, White said: "He looked very exciting when he won his bumper here last season. It's been a long, exciting summer waiting for this horse, hoping it all comes into fruition. It was a hot race but he won it well and we've got a lot to look forward to.

"There's a nice race at Ascot in three weeks which could be an option, but I suppose the Challow has to be the obvious target. We can make nice plans now."

Hobbs tends to be quite shy with the media, so it’s nice to see White give a fairly bolshy quote like this. The long wait through the summer has seemingly paid off, as there’s no reason not to believe that this lad can go on to better things from here.

BIG PURCHASE

And finally, the sales scene really is in a weird old mood, as displayed by yesterday’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale action.

Some horses went for prices as if something was wrong with them (Twomey’s Gr2 winner DEEPONE went for only 30k!) and then life sparked back into the ring where there was some big money shifted about. GLADIUS, third in the Group 3 Darley Stakes, sold to Blanford Bloodstock for 950k guineas, GEOGRAPHY, fourth in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret, sold to BBA Ireland for 570k guineas, WAVE RIDER, an impressive Pontefract handicap winner, sold to George Scott for 420k guineas, and NEW CENTURY, fourth at the Breeders’ Cup when with Andrew Balding last year, also sold to Blanford Bloodstock for 390k guineas.

But it took us by surprise to see WHITE BIRCH, a Group 1 winner who has had his setbacks, in the catalogue when it was first released, and one of his underbidders yesterday was also a bit of a shock. That’s because Harold Kirk, Willie Mullins’ sales guy, was one of the people raising his hand to up the bidding.

Imagine if Mullins got his hands on WHITE BIRCH! A 119-rated son of ULYSSES with the master of Closutton. Would Willie keep him on the Flat as a little project, or would obstacles beckon for the hugely talented Tattersalls Gold Cup winner?

Well, unfortunately, we’ll never know, as Jamie Osborne bought him for 300k guineas, and he already has a bit of a plan for him. He said: “Yes, he’s five, but I think he still has plenty of life in him. Compare him to a 300,000gns yearling, I know which risk I’d rather be taking! He can go anywhere. He can run at Royal Ascot next year and would be one of the better horses in the Wolferton. He can go around the world for the next couple of years too. We’ll look after him and he can give his news owners a lot of sport.

“A lot of my clients like the little adventures we go on, and isn’t he just the most wonderful horse to go on an adventure with? We’ll look after him. He’s probably ended up with a home for life. I’ll almost certainly geld him, which will give him that bit more longevity and we’ll take it from there.”

It would have been fun for his owners to keep him as an entire and potentially breed from him, but it seems like Osborne will have his prized possessions removed with a view to travelling the world with him.

Let’s hope his previous setbacks don’t come back to haunt him again, but we wish him all the best with his next adventures. We always had a bit of a soft spot for him. Whether it was his striking appearance or just the fact that he was taking on top Aidan O’Brien-trained horses from a slightly smaller operation, we always liked him.

Let’s hope he can continue operating on the big days.

RISK ON

No luck with the Boughey treble yesterday but they did all run well (with one winner) and we go back to the yard today:

18.30 BRASIL POWER

Back to a decent mark with Kempton form in the locker which would see him top in this race. If he’s back to his best he can get back in to the winners enclosure for a yard not in bad form. 9/1 a good ew.

SIGN UP TO OUR PREMIUM EDITION FOR MORE CONTENT FEAT. TODAYS BUMPER PREVIEW:

Become a paying subscriber to get access to all of our pedigree analysis, big race previews inc. bumper previews, standout stats and best bets over the coming NH season!

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.