Equinties - the master

Gm Equinauts

Only our intern delivering the memes again:

Big congrats to Rory McIlory on his beautiful and well deserved Masters win.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

THE MASTERS AND THE MASTER

If you’re a fan of sports, you were watching The Masters last night where Rory McIlroy finally achieved his destiny - he is a Grand Slam champion.

Funnily enough, there are parts of McIlroy’s success that can be compared to what’s going on in horse racing right now. Not to the same extent, but there are some similarities.

Parallel to McIlroy’s almost certain destiny to win the Masters at some point, Dan Skelton will be a champion jumps trainer, it’s just a case of when.

We half thought Skelton was going to win the championship last year before Willie Mullins swept through and won in a canter, but this year felt different. This year felt like Skelton’s year.

Well, it was until Aintree happened again. Still, heading into Ayr this weekend, the Warwickshire-based trainer had a six-figure sum lead over the master of Closutton, but after the Scottish Grand National, that lead was sharply reduced.

£1,430.72. That’s the amount of prize money that separates Mullins and Skelton in the trainers’ championship.

Mullins is on the charge though. He has entries all across Britain this week, including at the midweek Cheltenham April meeting, and he’s bound to pick up plenty of prize money. Hell, if he can turn up to the Scottish Grand National and win with the horse Harry Cobden was riding, he must have the horses ready to fire at Britain this coming week.

We know the trainers’ title isn’t the most enthralling thing in the world, but we have a nice little battle for the final few weeks. Can Dan finally get his hands on the championship, or will Willie spoil the party? In our Masters analogy, we’d be backing Justin Rose this time knowing full well it will be big Dan’s time very soon.

ELITE BAND

ZELPHI, FRANKEL, KINGMAN, and now JONQUIL - the four Juddmonte-owned winners of the Group 3 Greenham Stakes.

That’s a pretty elite list that JONQUIL has got to live up to after winning the Greenham Stakes, but he has the unexposed profile of one who could just do that. So, let’s start with the performance of Andrew Balding’s LOPE DE VEGA colt in the context of a 2000 Guineas because, after all, this is a natural Guineas Trial.

Firstly, there is a question mark about the form to a degree. RASHABAR drifted like it lost a leg pre-race, and Brian Meehan did warn us all that he would need this race before his next big target and yet, he still finished second, two lengths ahead of Joseph O’Brien’s runner, SARACEN.

When you look into the form of JONQUIL, he has lots of upsides. On debut, he won by a neck at Sandown when getting an awful route through, and the second, CENTIGRADE, ran to an RPR of 99 when winning a Newbury novice in October.

His dam, JOVIAL, is a half-sister to the Group 1-placed JUBILOSO and also MAXIMAL, who finished second to BAAEED in a Listed Newmarket race in July 2021. So, he has the pedigree, he’s an unexposed horse, and he has the ability. Those are three pretty nice check marks in his column for a potential 2000 Guineas tilt.

Juddmonte may not send COSMIC YEAR to the first Classic of the year, but JONQUIL could represent them. Andrew Badling didn’t give much away on Saturday, as he said: "It looks like a mile will suit him and this is always a good race, while he’s a well-balanced horse and I wouldn't say Newmarket would be a problem, but we'll discuss it first.

"He was a smart horse last year on his debut and, although it didn’t go to plan second time out, we’ve had plenty of time with him. His work’s been great and I’m thrilled to win it."

Juddmonte also have FIELD OF GOLD, a Craven runner, as a potential Guineas contender, so they certainly have a very nice hand.

It’s a wide-open year for the Guineas. Good horses like HENRI MATISSE and the English contingent have already shown their hand, and there are contenders like SCORTHY CHAMP to consider. Looking forward to it.

CRAVIN’ THE PEDIGREES

The flat season proper is in full force and Newmarket’s Craven meeting starts tomorrow meaning. The week is littered with brilliant Group races we will dissect as well as a couple of nice 2yo races we will feature in Young Blood. We’re as giddy as STRADIVARIUS around the fillies thinking about this week action, especially for some of the potential 2yo rockets on display so thought we’d act early to highlight some of more eye-catching pedigrees.

The first 2yo race of the meeting is tomorrows 16.10 Class 2 Maiden Fillies Stakes over 5f and the first pedigree to note is Godolphin’s TWILIGHT STAR. She is by rocket maker MEHMAS and her mum won this race on debut in 2019!

With no 2yo race on the Wednesday (snore), Thursday’s card opens up nicely with a Class 4 for the young guns over 5f and one that immediately catches the eye is Boughey’s MOONFALL. The last time Boughey had a runner in this race he won it with FORCA BRASIL in 2021. MOONFALL’s pedigree could be special, he’s by new sire STARMAN but more, he’s out of LEALA’S DAUGHTER making him a half to Boughey’s Group star SOPRANO. She hosed up over course and distance in 2023 - can her half brother do the same!? We imagine Bougheys yard will be playing fastest finger first on BET365 the night before.

WEEKEND EYE-CATCHERS

TABLETALK - SATURDAY 13.25 NEWBURY

The Group 3 Surprise Stakes on Saturday was, well, a surprise. DIVINA GRACE winning was a small shock, but TABLETALK looked like a nice horse in second.
He’s still a little bit unexposed having won a handicap last year after his run in the Derby. He doesn’t look like a soft ground horse, so he can be forgiven for a few of his runs last year, and he still has more to give this season. Eyes on.

FOX’S FANCY - SATURDAY 14.55 AYR

THE LORD MAID was a pretty hardy winner of the 3m mares’ handicap hurdle, but FOX’S FANCY could be the one to follow from the race. She must have gone short in running as travelled like the winner just before the second-last but arguably didn’t see out the trip properly. It was her second start at the distance, so it was probably worth a shot. Maybe softer ground and a step back in trip could suit her in the long run, but she’s not finished off her current handicap mark.

COGITATE - SATURDAY 15.12 NEWBURY

These early-season Flat races will be full of horses who will come on for their runs and Newbury was full of eye-catchers at the weekend (namely Haggas’ odds on beat) but COGITATE could be be overlooked by the market in future. He was an interesting one pre-race given his only win was when bolting up at our home course. He found himself well held-up with plenty to do and was never going to win especially on the wing of the track in home straight, but he stayed on well enough for pressure and he has some smart bits of form in the book with BOILING POINT and NIGHT RAIDER. If he gets dropped for his run on the weekend, he could be very interesting.

FRIO - SUNDAY 16.15 MUSSELBURGH

Bumped out the stalls and subsequently lost a massive number of lengths on the field. He stayed on best though to get up for third and we think on level terms, he’d have been BANG there. Definitely one to follow in a novice event soon.

RISK ON

One horse we like is too short today so we’re instilling good behaviours by leaving it and waiting for the fast horses at Newmarket.

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