Powerful chance for Slattery colt in smart renewal of Sapphire Stakes
'He looks ready for this, he's very exciting and we like him, he's a very fast horse,' said Slattery ahead of the Group Two contest.
'I'm as confident as I can be I suppose, I wouldn't swap him for another horse in there anyway. His form stands up. He's raced against Arizona Blaze twice and beaten him twice.
'Mgheera is a Group Two winner, but she's got the penalty. We've been taking our time with him, but everything has been good with him. We won't know if he's ready for the next step until we do it.
'I think with a bit of luck in running we should take a good bit of beating.'
Arizona Blaze was second at Royal Ascot in the Commonwealth Cup last time out and was also second at the Breeders' Cup last autumn.
'We're expecting a big run. He's a lovely horse and he never seems to run a bad race,' said trainer Adrian Murray.
'He's been second in two Group Ones, at the Breeders' Cup and Royal Ascot, he was third at Ascot last year, he's won two Group Threes, he's been a great horse for us.
'Hopefully we get get his head in front in a Group One before the season is out.
'If the winner at Ascot (Time For Sandals) had been on his side I think he might have battled back because they were so far apart he probably thought he'd won, but that's racing.
'All ground comes alike to him, it doesn't seem to be an issue, so hopefully he's got a great chance.'
Only four line up in the GAIN Railway Stakes, with Aidan O'Brien responsible for Queen Mary winner True Love and Puerto Rico, Ger Lyons runs Learntodiscover and Murray sends Power Blue, fifth in the Coventry Stakes.
'Power Blue hasn't been running badly since his debut. He's a fair horse, he's never disappointed,' said Murray.
'He ran a fair race in Ascot and hopefully he'll put it up to the favourite (True Love).
'We've all heard what Aidan says of Albert Einstein and he didn't beat him far in the Marble Hill so that must give us a great chance.'
A field of nine has been declared for the Michael John Kennedy Curragh Cup, with Joseph O'Brien saddling three.
Al Riffa sets the standard having been runner-up in the Hardwicke last time out, Uxmal won the Queen's Vase last year but has not run since while Leinster has been fourth in the Chester Cup and Ascot Stakes the last twice.
'Al Riffa steps up in distance for the first time and we're looking forward to seeing how that goes. Leinster ran well at Royal Ascot and Uxmal is having his first run off a lay off and it is nice to get him back on track,' said O'Brien.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
13 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Deauville repeat firmly on the radar for Lazzat
Royal Ascot sprint star Lazzat is pencilled in to make his next start on home turf, as the Prix Maurice de Gheest beckons again. The gelded four-year-old, who is trained in France by Jerome Reynier and owned by Wathnan Racing, was an excellent winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on his first start for new connections. His next port of call is likely to be the Deauville feature, a Group One he won by an impressive three lengths last season. 'We were delighted with him at Ascot, that was a very serious performance,' said Richard Brown, racing manager to Wathnan. 'He probably had a hard enough race, they always do at that level, so we said we'd give him a bit of a chance to give him a bit of a wind down and then wind him back up again. 'His next run will be in the Prix Maurice de Gheest and Jerome's delighted with him, he came out of the race very well. 'We could have brought him back quicker if we'd wanted to, but we just thought we'd give him the chance now to be a fresh horse going into the autumn. 'We want to look after him, he's a multiple Group One winner and he's clearly a very high-class animal. 'We'll race him with his long-term future in mind and hope he can be around for the next few years.'
BBC News
15 hours ago
- BBC News
Dublin to face Meath in Ladies All-Ireland final
Meath knocked out holders Kerry to book their place in the Ladies All-Ireland SFC final against Dublin, who required extra time to see off Galway in their in either half from Kerrie Cole and Sarah Wall helped the Royals to a 2-12 to 1-9 victory against the reigning champions as they reached the final for the first time in three years.A late flurry of goals and points in the second half of extra time helped the Dubs to claim a 3-14 to 2-14 win which sets up an all-Leinster decider. The two sides will now face off in a repeat of the 2021 final on Sunday, 3 August at Croke led 1-5 to 0-6 in Tullamore at half-time with Cole's smashed effort putting them in the fought back to level early in the second half with a goal from Danielle O'Leary, but Meath wrestled back control and a second goal, this time from defender Wall proved crucial as they saw out the and Galway were level at 1-6 to 0-9 half-time with Hannah Tyrell scoring a penalty for the was nip-and-tuck in the second half right up until the closing stages, with Tyrell scoring a late free to force extra game sprang into life in the second half of extra time, as Carla Rowe and Kate Sullivan added further goals for the Trill and Olivia Divilly replied with goals for Galway, but it was not enough as Dublin tagged on a few more late points to progress.
BBC News
17 hours ago
- BBC News
Confident Furlong wants first Lions series win
Tadhg Furlong has been there, done that and bought the veteran prop was making his seventh test match start for the Lions and any doubts, anyone had, if he was worthy of his place after two seasons of stop-start rugby for Leinster and Ireland because of niggling injuries were dispelled as he produced a performance to match any in his stellar 2017 Furlong was a member of the Lions squad that lost the first test in New Zealand but came back to win the second and tie the years later in South Africa, the Lions went 1-nil up before losing the series as the Springboks came roaring has experienced the physical and mental struggles of being ahead and behind in a three-match series and heading into the second test in Melbourne, he's unlikely to hop on an emotional rollercoaster. 'There's two sides of the coin,' explained Furlong.'Obviously it's on us that we don't get complacent and we learn the lessons.'We have a midweek game again. It's great to see the boys go out and see who puts their hands up. If the lads go well on Tuesday then it will put them in contention.'The other side of that is we know what it means to the Aussies.'The desperation is all in there for them next weekend.'Every series is different but some things remain the same no matter what.'There is a flow to it. The group is edgy. We don't know each other, we don't know the Australians and they don't know us and what it's actually like on the pitch.'You watch all the video. You do all your prep.'There's a realisation after that of what it takes and what it felt like in the game.'So there's a bit of an ebb and flow on it.'It's all about, as stupid as it sounds, just going again and trying to put your game out there.'There'll be tweaks and changes and nuances in the whole thing and a little bit of tit for tat,' he added. Furlong was feeling so good on Saturday night that at one stage he threw a 20 metre pass with unerring accuracy, not always a props greatest strength.'A floaty one, he admitted.'I thought it was good. I know it was on penalty advantage but your confidence is there.'It was that kind of game where I was attacking well and getting through a few carries.'In some games you get ball and in some games you don't get ball.'I always like when you get a few carries and get into the game and you're feeling good.'I love seeing the ball moving forward. I thought the boys did a great job of that.'At the same time, we probably forced stuff as well.'We probably got a little bit giddy one off-floor, two off-floor and then we threw a speculative one or maybe we looked for an off-load too early.'I thought when we went through a few phases I thought we looked good.'On his third tour, Furlong has never missed a test match, all that's missing is being part of a series get that chance in Melbourne on Saturday.
