Equinties - Royal Ascot winner sold

Gm Equinauts

It’s Wednesday which means only one thing - our A Look Ahead feature is BACK!

Last week’s ante-post selection for the Northumberland Plate, YASHIN, made it to the race and was one of the market principles, but he failed to hit the frame and ultimately proved very disappointing.

This week we’re focusing on one Northern trainer who was our trainer to follow last year…

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

MAJOR MICKLEY MOVE

As we have seen with horses owned by Siu Pak-Kwan in the past (notably with WAIPIRO), any decent horses who sport the red and black striped silks in the UK generally end up transferring over to Hong Kong.

This is certainly the case for MICKLEY, Ed Bethell’s Britannia Stakes winner, as he will leave the UK to continue his racing career in Hong Kong on Thursday.

"He leaves on Thursday morning," Bethell said on Tuesday. "He's done his job, he won at Royal Ascot, it was our first winner there for us and, unfortunately in this world, we've got to sell.

"He was running in our syndicate colours and we got offered good money. Unless he's a Group 1 performer he wouldn't have made that money in handicaps, which is the sad reality of it all. It's the same story, just a different day.

"He's a useful horse and I've been very lucky to be part of his career. He won the Britannia really well but he might have been a bit lucky, being in the right place at the right time on the track. But we all need luck in this sport."

More: https://www.racingpost.com/news/britain/unfortunately-in-this-world-weve-got-to-sell-britannia-winner-sold-to-race-in-hong-kong-aXIcM4U0UoCs/ 

A HOT SALE

Described as a filly “with the best profile for the US”, Grove Stud’s daughter of TOO DARN HOT sold for €210,000 at Tuesday’s Arqana Summer Sale.

Having been bought for 80,000gns at Tattersalls Book 1 in October, the two-year-old is out of TEARS OF THE SON who placed in a Listed race for Clive Cox in 2016.

The filly was meant to be sold in the spring but she had a small setback. However, that didn’t seem to affect her price.

Arthur Hoyeau, on behalf of new owners Myracehorse, said: “She's been bought for Myracehorse and will go to America, where I think she could fit in well. She’ll be syndicated in the weeks to come.

“There’s been a good word for the way she's been working in the weeks leading up to the sale and I think she was the filly with the best profile for the US at a mile and maybe further.

“She was due to go to an earlier sale but had a small setback. But she has a great pedigree and physique, while I loved her breeze.”

More: https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/sales-reports/she-has-a-great-pedigree-and-physique-while-i-loved-her-breeze-210000-too-darn-hot-filly-stands-out-at-arqana-amWEe2N8lwTm/ 

A LOOK AHEAD

As for this week, Saturday’s 15.15 Old Newton Cup at Haydock looks like the highlight handicap of the weekend, so let’s dive in.

With rain expected today, the official going of good could well change ahead of Saturday, but the forecast is meant to be sound after today, so we could just have good (or slightly softer) ground.

LA YAKEL has contested six handicaps so far in his career, all of which he was favourite for. He has won two of them and they were both Class 2 contests. The form of his Ascot win in September 2022 is fair, but his Doncaster win in September wasn’t a great race. It is also his first run of the season, so one would question if he’s ready or not.

If ASTRO KING runs off a mark of 109, RELENTLESS VOYAGER will have the task of carrying 108 for Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy. Balding won this in 2021 with ALOUNAK and his win at Epsom this year was off a mark of 101, so his higher mark could be hard to handle. Two horses have won this race with a weight of 9-10 in the last 10 years and one did it off 9-8, so 9-11 is doable for him.

An interesting entry is CHILLINGHAM who put in a good effort at York 52 days ago, though he has not been seen since. He gave weight away to PRYDWEN at Wolverhampton in November and beat him, form that looks good as the second won two big all-weather handicaps at the start of 2024. This five-year-old could be the unexposed type off a winnable mark.

EPIC POET, a Listed winner in France in 2022, was given 3lbs by the handicapper for his second to CRYSTAL BLACK in the Duke Of Edinburgh at Royal Ascot. That form with CRYSTAL BLACK and ETHICAL DIAMOND could turn out to be a hot piece of form going forward and, on his day, he is classy. He’s interesting off 100.

One of the other fancied David O’Meara-trained runners is IRON LION, the ROARING LION four-year-old who won at Haydock in June. He only got 5lbs for his Haydock win two starts ago and the handicapper gave him 1lb back for his fifth at Ayr last month. He was good at Haydock and could still be improving. That course and distance form is solid as well.

Verdict: Ed Bethell was one of our trainers to follow last year and there is no reason to desert him this season, especially having bagged his first Royal Ascot win. We think it won’t be long for CHILLINGHAM to have his day in the sun so he is the verdict at 8/1.

RISK ON

Good to get back on the scoreboard yesterday with the single and 5/2 double landing. Many landed huge acca’s with Norm (@normduncsbgp) two selections landing too!

Today we like:

15.15 THE REVERAND

5/6 is a good single and leverage for another if you have another banker shortie.

20.45 CHECKMEOUT

Catching the drift on this girl. She’s probably the lowest rated horse in Varian’s yard but she’s unexposed at this trip, ridiculous given all her family excelled over such a distance. 10/3 a small single.

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