Tag Archive for: Shadwell

Prestige run a possibility for Newbury victor Touleen

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The Prestige Stakes at Goodwood is a potential next port of call for Touleen following her impressive debut at Newbury last week.

A daughter of Lope De Vega out of Group Three-winning mare Talaayeb, the Shadwell homebred was sent off favourite to make a successful start to her career for trainer Owen Burrows and obliged in some style.

Shadwell’s racing manager, Angus Gold, admitted the performance was beyond his expectations and is excited to see how she performs when upped in class.

He said: “We’ve made an entry for her in the Rockfel and the Fillies’ Mile. I spoke to Owen briefly and he said he’ll see how she is next week and he might think about putting her in the Prestige at Goodwood, or I believe there’s a fillies’ novice coming up at Newmarket possibly.

“Owen had only ever said she went all right. They took her for an away-day at Kempton and Jim (Crowley) liked the feel of her, but they didn’t press any buttons.

“I think that experience stood her in good stead, she was in the right spot in the race and I loved the way she put the race to bed and kept going all the way to the line.

“It wasn’t expected, but it was obviously very nice to see. We’ll give her two or three more runs and see how she takes it all. She’s not a big, robust filly so we’ll just feel our way, but Owen is quite keen to get on and run her in the next three weeks or so.”

Another horse held in high regard by the Shadwell team is Almeraq, who having bolted up in an Ayr handicap last month is set to have his sights raised, with Gold not ruling out the possibility of an immediate step up to Group One level in the Sprint Cup at Haydock.

“He was in a Listed race in France the other day (Prix Moonlight Cloud) but we thought it was going to be too quick,” he added.

“I think there is a Listed race at Newmarket at the end of next week (Hopeful Stakes) so we could look at that, depending on the weather. Or if necessary, if things aren’t going to work and we want to take the bold route, we could go straight to Haydock for the Sprint Cup.

“We’ve missed a lot of the season with him, he’s always been a potentially nice horse and there is no point going down the handicapping route, so let’s just get on and see what the weather does and take it from there.”

Connections looking to to see the real Falakeyah next time out

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Connections of Falakeyah are keen to put a line through her disappointing performance at Royal Ascot, with Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes identified as a potential stage for redemption.

Having bolted up on her Wolverhampton debut in November, the Owen Burrows-trained filly looked every inch a top-class performer in the making when running away with Newmarket’s Pretty Polly Stakes on her return to action in the spring.

After sidestepping the Oaks at Epsom and being ruled out of the French equivalent, Falakeyah dropped back to a mile for the Coronation Stakes, but ended up racing too enthusiastically for her own good on the front end before weakening in the home straight.

Angus Gold, racing manager for owners Shadwell, said: “It was a pity, as I was very pleased with her before the race. She settled beforehand, I thought, she was good and calm in the ring and Jim (Crowley) said she went down brilliantly relaxed.

“I’ve only seen the replay once, but it looked to me like for the first 50 or 60 yards of the race she was OK and then when Hollie (Doyle, riding Duty First) came upsides her she just put her head in the air and took off basically. It just set her alight and that was it.

“On a hot day like that, she was never going to be able to keep going at that pace, so we’ll just give her a bit of time. We didn’t learn anything regarding distance or anything like that, all we learnt was she’s not going to win races if she races like that.”

He added: “We know she’s considerably better than that, her work at home is very high class and that run didn’t bare any resemblance to her work at home. We’ll obviously have to try to settle her next time and maybe we’ll have a look at something like the Nassau. We’ll just see how everyone feels nearer the time.

“At home she settles beautifully and is quite happy to take a lead and doesn’t fight the jockey, so we’ve just got to get her to do that on the racecourse if she’s going to have any chance of finishing off her races.”