Gm, Equinauts

Without wanting to sound like Tommy Skinner booming out some Temu-Churchill prose about hard work and grafting until the job’s done — all while eating a pie for breakfast inside an East London café — today actually feels like one of those days where you need to keep your head down and get done whatever job it is you do

because what’s coming could genuinely be one of the greatest bank holidays in the sweet sweet history of bank holidays.

Why?

The racing is epic and it’s going to be scorchio.

Oh and the Tote has an UNBELIEVABLE £350k Scoop6 rollover up for grabs.

That is big. Click this link to enter it here: Tote | Offers

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

🐎💰SKELTON SPENDING

Dan really means business.

We mentioned his half a milli purchase ISAAC OF YORK earlier this week, but don’t think that big send caused him to wince and pull the purse strings for he’s continuing to make a major statement in the ring.

Across the two-day Donny sale, Skelton and bloodstock agent Ryan Mahon purchased 20 horses for a combined £470,000, comfortably making them the busiest buyers of the week. Their haul included RISKY OBSESSION, a horse already familiar to the stable after winning a bumper for the yard at Warwick before later being sold privately.

The aggressive recruitment drive reflects Skelton’s growing ambitions following his title-winning campaign and says part of the motivation is an attempt to challenge Martin Pipe’s long-standing record of 243 winners in a single season.

Skelton is ‘riding the crest of a wave’ from the new found support entering the yard since being crowned champ and has shut down the breeding side of his yard to house all the new recruits.

More:

🟢 🔴DEVASTATING DARYZ

Uh oh. If you liked DARYZ to repeat his Arc victory this year, he’s just been laden with another stone on his back:

The Blogger obviously say something he liked yesterday when Europe’s leading middle-distance horse landed another Group 1 at Longchamp and who can blame him, just look at this turn of foot:

The SEA THE STARS colt travelled so powerfully through the race that he looked to be cantering upsides the field before quickening clear to beat LEFFARD comfortably, with last year’s winner SOSIE well held in third. The performance only reinforced the growing belief that DARYZ will head to Royal Ascot as the horse to beat in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes next month — something Graffard later confirmed.

WHAT. A. RACE. THAT. WILL BE.

Having already proven himself over a mile and a half with victory in last season’s Arc, DARYZ is now showing he possesses the pace and tactical speed to dominate over shorter trips as well. His devastating turn of foot, first seen in the Prix Ganay and again at Longchamp, continues to separate him from… well, everyone.

His trainer even suggested he would not be afraid to drop him back to a mile.

Graffard also admitted the colt is not the easiest horse to manage at home due to his strong personality. Now that is an interesting quote, because it makes you wonder: does he have that personality because he’s such an absolute weapon? Most top sires seem to have strong temperaments. Burgage Stud reportedly couldn’t even get SHANTOU out of his box for visitors because he was so fiery. And the really fascinating question is whether DARYZ could eventually pass his traits into his progeny, just like GALILEO made such mentally tough sons and daughters. We find this side of the sport endlessly interesting.

Anyway, back to yesterday. The victory carried additional emotional significance for the Aga Khan family, with the race recently renamed in honour of the late Aga Khan IV. Princess Zahra Aga Khan described the occasion as especially meaningful, adding that DARYZ now looks like a fully mature racehorse entering the peak phase of his career.

Will you be following the Bogger in and backing DARYZ for the Arc!?

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