Latest news with #ForSandals
Glasgow Times
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Champions Day seen as an ‘obvious' target for Docklands
Harry Eustace's five-year-old is owned by the Australian outfit OTI Racing, and was campaigned internationally over the winter before returning to Newmarket. His early campaign revolved around Ascot, a track he clearly favours and shone at again with a tough Group One victory over Rosallion. The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes is therefore the late-season target over the same course and distance, with a European campaign the likely focus in the meantime. Harry Eustace celebrates after winning the Queen Anne Stakes with Docklands (David Davies/PA) 'The obvious thing to do would be to work backwards from Champions Day at Ascot, there's also the Prix Jacques le Marois and the Sussex Stakes,' said Eustace. 'He takes his racing well, he ran 10 days before Ascot at Epsom so I don't necessarily want or need to space his racing out a lot. 'He put in a huge performance at Ascot, but he's a five-year-old and if there was ever a year where we can campaign him more aggressively then this is it. 'We were waiting to see how Ascot panned out before we began plotting where'd he go next, but the one thing we know he won't do is go to Australia.' Time For Sandals winning the Commonwealth Cup under Richard Kingscote (John Walton/PA) Eustace had two Group One winners across Royal Ascot, the second being Time For Sandals after her 25-1 strike in the Commonwealth Cup. She has a host of top level sprints on her radar, though connections anticipate next year will be a busier campaign as she started her season this time relatively early. 'She's great and seems to have come out of it really well,' he said of the filly. 'We hadn't really thought past Ascot with her because we were pitching her in a Group One and we knew it'd tell us how to campaign her for the rest of season. 'Now she's a Group One winner, she's got to run in Group One races so races like the Flying Five, the Nunthorpe and the Haydock Sprint Cup are all obvious targets. 'She was up and running early enough for the Fred Darling so I don't think we'll be campaigning her aggressively this year. 'We'll very much look at the older sprint programme next year, it sort of writes itself.'
Glasgow Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Time For Sandals pulls off Commonwealth Cup shock
The Newmarket handler struck for the very first time in Group One company with Docklands in the Queen Anne Stakes and wasted little time doubling that tally with a filly who was registering just her second career victory – and first since her debut last year. Sent off at 25-1 in the hands of Richard Kingscote, she cruised to the front on the far side with a furlong to run and showed great resolve to edge out Arizona Blaze by a neck with the supplemented Rayevka half a length further back in third. 'It's the first time she's had a fast horse to follow, I don't want to say (we were) very confident, but we felt like we hadn't seen the best from her for one reason or another,' said Eustace. Time For Sandals came from the supposedly disadvantaged far side of the track (John Walton/PA) 'The voice is in dire straits, I can assure you of that! She's always shaped to be pretty good and at home we felt we had excuses for her; she never ran a bad one, she was always right there but hadn't quite put it all together. 'We were always confident in a race like this where there would be fast horses taking her along, that's really what she needed; don't get me wrong, we didn't dream that we'd get here, but she was always pretty good.' He added: 'It's been extraordinary (the meeting), but that's the team at home, it's all the little things all the way through and I can't thank them enough. The owners will be in there, they're relatively new, this is the second ever horse they've had and they're pretty lucky people.' Kingscote – who won the Derby for Sir Michael Stoute on Desert Crown in 2022 – said: 'I've had nice horses to ride since Sir Michael retired, it was always going to be a year of building back up, I had a nice bit of support and I'm delighted to get on a filly like her. 'Last year she was a very unlucky placed horse in the Super Sprint and she progressed all the way through. She was unlucky last time I felt. 'She did a spectacular piece of work a couple of weeks ago at Newmarket and I'm delighted to ride Harry a big winner because he's a gentleman and his yard is such a happy yard. 'I'm delighted, he's a lovely man and his staff are always so positive and happy so it's great to get them a nice winner. He's only just trained his 100th winner, so I'd say two Group Ones at Royal Ascot is pretty special to him.' Arizona Blaze (purple) ran a stormer for Adrian Murray (Damien Eagers/PA) Arizona Blaze may have been 28-1, but did not surprise trainer Adrian Murray with his huge performance, with the Irish handler now eyeing a tilt at York's Nunthorpe Stakes later in the summer. 'Big run, but he never runs a bad race. He always turns up on the day so I'm delighted with him,' said Murray. 'He's very reliable. When he came home the last day he was a bit flat within himself, so he probably was a bit under the weather when he ran, we put that behind us and we were very confident of a good run. 'It was a huge price, I couldn't believe it! 'I think we'll go for the Nunthorpe, he's in the July Cup as well but I think we'll look at York.'
