Equinties - Royal Ascot day 1

Gm Equinauts

The fastest horses in the world, gentlemen in tails, women in dresses and hats, too much champagne and and hot sun…

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

THE NIGHT BEFORE

Anyone who knows anyone had one thing on the agenda yesterday: the Goffs London Sale.

It’s the annual pre-Royal Ascot drink-a-thon for all the industry-leading buyers, media professionals, and, well, just anyone. Oh, and some racehorses are sold, we think.

With this description, there’s only one man who could have been at the centre of the sale’s top lot. Enter stage left, Kia Joorabchian.

According to this interview on Nick Luck Daily, the boss of Amo Racing bought the horse with one bid, and he only bid for the horse because his son “picked it out a while ago”. That’s child labour, right?

With all the drama that surrounds Joorabchian on a regular basis, this interview slightly sums up his time in racing so far. His adviser, Alex Elliott, didn’t want to buy the horse, he’s just taken a £2,000,000 chance that last year’s Juddmonte International third “could go up to Group 1 level”, and he might keep the horse with Clive Cox even though his new MO is buying horses to train in his new yard.

Organised madness, and we love it.

Kia hasn’t confirmed what he’s to do with GHOSTWRITER but we imagine he’ll soon have to let Clive know he’s losing his best horse. We heard whispers from the sale from people who were with Kia last night suggesting he’s going overseas.

Cox Plate anyone?

On the purchase Kia said: “I’ve been extremely unsuccessful at this sale in the past years but listen, it’s a nice sale, a beautiful atmosphere to buy a horse in. This horse is proven and we think he can have a huge future. Fingers crossed we’re right and we’ll go forward and see how it happens.”

Kia could well be right. It took a good CITY OF TROY and CALANDAGAN to stop this horse from winning the Juddmonte, and he was fourth in the 2000 Guineas. This year could see him take home that first Group 1.

Oh, and Amo Racing signed on the dotted line for TYCOON at £600,000. He’s entered in the Golden Gates on Saturday, and it looks as if Kia will keep the horse with the Gosdens for now until the race. With just three runs under the belt, he could be interesting in his first handicap off 97.

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