Equinties - plans, prices & problems

Author

BGP Capital
May 20, 2025

Equinties

Gm Equinauts

Drifts and squeezes on Coolmore horses and jockey bookings by Juddmonte, racing X is where it was at yesterday.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

JUDDMONTE PLANS

Juddmonte are inundated with classy three-year-olds this season. And yet, they haven’t won a ‘big one’.

JONQUIL nearly landed the French 2000 Guineas, and we all know what happened to FIELD OF GOLD in the English 2000 Guineas earlier this month. Sorry, Kieran.

Well, it seems like Prince Fahad, Prince Saud, and Prince Ahmed have had enough of the ‘close but no cigar’ nature of this season as they are set to run three, yes three, horses in the Irish 2000 Guineas this weekend.

FIELD OF GOLD is one, with Colin Keane booked to ride, while COSMIC YEAR (Oisin Murphy is riding more and more for Juddmonte now) and WINDLORD are set to join him in the race.

That is, undoubtedly, a strong squad. Of course, when the news about Keane came in, Racing X went into overdrive, but this is no surprise.

Matt Chapman may have batted the corner of Shoey over the weekend, but Juddmonte were rather annoyed after Newmarket, which arguably contributed to the sacking of Shoemark from the Gosden job.

Anyway, Keane is in the saddle, and that’s a very safe booking. He’s a great rider, he knows the Curragh well, and FIELD OF GOLD is a pretty easy horse to guide through a race.

But the confirmation of COSMIC YEAR is very interesting. Harry Charlton and Juddmonte have been keen to keep him away from deep water, mainly due to quick ground, but the Curragh will be on quick ground this weekend.

Still, they have to step him up into Group 1 company after his Listed win at Newmarket on Guineas weekend. It is just a small bit surprising that they are doing it in a race where they already have two representatives.

On the team, Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s general manager, said: "It's going to make the picture a lot clearer, and it's obviously a knock-on of not winning the 2,000 Guineas in Newmarket with Field Of Gold.

"Windlord started out with a Derby preparation and the jockey and trainer felt he didn't stay, so he's back at a mile. With Cosmic Year, in fairness, this was always his intended target. It's a lovely problem to have with them and it's going to answer a lot of questions about who goes to the St James's Palace, who goes somewhere else like the Prix Jean Prat."

ALBANY FOR BLOOM

We’re starting to get a nice picture of some of the Royal Ascot juvenile races.

Over the last week, we’ve seen LADY IMAN extend her unbeaten run to three in the Group 3 Blackbeard Stakes, and she is set to go to the Queen Mary. 5/1 ante-post favourite.

She could be joined by HARRY’S GIRL, Richard Hannon’s precocious juvenile who was just chinned in the Listed Marygate Fillies’ Stakes at York. She has the Super Sprint as her main aim, but she will stop off at Ascot on the way.

And yesterday, we thought the Queen Mary would have one more confirmation after VENETIAN SUN bolted up in the five-furlong novice stakes for Karl Burke and Tony Bloom on her debut.

It was a nice performance, and Burke expects more to come, so she should improve for the run. Furthermore, her success gives STARMAN another win under the belt. He’s had a great start to his stallion career thanks to her, GOLD DIGGER, and, more notably, LADY IMAN.

Although the Queen Mary looked obvious in the immediate aftermath, Burke suggested that the Albany Stakes over six furlongs would be more up her street.
He said: "It was a very good race for the grade and I would say she's very, very useful. If she goes to Royal Ascot, it will be the Albany I would think, she's a real six-furlong filly."

She is 20/1 for the Albany. Interesting.

THE LATEST FROM THE LADS

Were you plugged into Racing X yesterday? Away from the Colin Keane, FIELD OF GOLD, and Kieran Shoemark debacle, some Aidan O’Brien-trained horses were doing flip-flops in various betting markets.

Basically, KYPRIOS is on the drift for the Gold Cup, as is DELACROIX for the Derby, and both ILLINOIS and THE LION IN WINTER have shortened respectively.

Can we definitively say anything from these market moves? Well, no, but when there’s smoke, there’s fire, and O’Brien has addressed the well-being of all the horses in the Racing Post.

About the Derby, he said: "It could be Lambourn, Delacroix and The Lion In Winter. Maybe all three will run and then we have the two Lingfield horses [Puppet Master and Stay True]. We'll see how they're all working, talk to Ryan and decide.

"Everything has been good with Delacroix. He doesn't look a slow horse, but his sister [Grateful] got a mile and six, so you would hope the Derby distance would be within his range.

"We always thought what happened at York with The Lion In Winter could happen, but he needed to run if he was going to go to the Derby. We were very happy with the run. He jumped, he was fresh and things didn't work. He would have probably been a good third but he got stopped halfway down the straight. If he hadn't jumped into the bridle and wanted to tear off early, that would have been another couple of lengths."

And as for the Gold Cup, he said: "Kyprios was perfect after the race, but just as he walked out of the winner's enclosure we think he crossed his legs and caught the outside of his ringbone. Bone pain can be sore on a horse and he walked away lame.
"When he came back the lads scanned and x-rayed him and it was all perfect. He walked and trotted the next morning and is 100 per cent."

Which drift is the most worrying?

We’d have to say the KYPRIOS drift. The Derby horses changing in the market is interesting, but that could simply be ‘The Lads’ preferring THE LION IN WINTER over DELACROIX, which is maybe a bit of a worry for DELACROIX fans. But KYPRIOS is a better horse than ILLINOIS, and the simple explanation behind that market swap would have to be that there is something amiss with last year’s Gold Cup winner.

This story isn’t over.

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RISK ON

Ultimately we were right about being wrong on the Gosden’s but not wrong about our shortie treble - two obliged but the leading fancy NOVELLO LAD tripped and stumbled badly when making his move. That’s racing.

Today we‘re going to have a rare jumps bet for this time of year and a couple of flat bets:

14.50 GHOST HUNTER & 17.25 GRANDADS CAP

Nice little Southwell double here and taking on two James Owen horses who are prominent in their respective markets. GHOST HUNTER looks much improved now moving trainer (he needs a more prominent ride the last time). GHOST HUNTER is a quirky horses and Sheehan has gone to Huntingdon instead but Burke is good in the plate and can get this one home. The other, GRANDADS CAP, looks like he’s about to be much improved for the application of cash! Absolutely stinks and his point form put him well clear. Yard flying. 6/1 win double.

15.32 HIGH DEGREE & 16.32 SERENITY BLUE

A message for Shaggas’ in the first of the non-handicaps and then Horton’s SERENITY BLUE looks to have the leading chance on form in the other. Too many unraced horses in here to bet with much certainty so we’re going to hit another 6/1 double.

Horton isn’t in much form at the moment (trainer of SERENITY BLUE) but both of his horses looked appealing today not least NYMPHAEA in the 15.10. At 25/1 she’s worth a win bet in a god awful race. She’s arguably bred the best by KAMEKO and owned by Redvers (owner of Tweenhills where the sire KAMEKO stands at £20k). She’s up against lowly fillies - O’Meara’s look not to stay, FANTASMIC for Jack Jones needs slower ground, Sangster’s LIFE IS GOOD is by another Tweenhills sire standing for a third the cost (and probably needs slow) and the others don’t look much cop! Worth a stake at 25/1. Aaand as we’re typing it’s getting backed. We’ve taken a small poke at 18/1 now, not the 25’s it was when this essay started. We’ve got BOG.

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