At Tattersalls’ famous sales ring a mile or so from the racecourse, the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian has spent the week going head-to-head with the sovereign wealth of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, securing nearly £20m of yearlings for his Amo Racing operation next season.
The beautiful game could be about to grab a piece of the action on Newmarket’s historic Rowley Mile, too. Seagulls Eleven, a two-year-old colt owned by 11 of Brighton’s current and former players, is among a field of six runners for the Group One Dewhurst Stakes on Saturday, the most historic and prestigious juvenile race of the season, and Hugo Palmer, his trainer, will head to the track in a positive frame of mind.
“In all fairness, he is a little bit like his owners,” Palmer said this week. “He’s Brighton taking on Liverpool and Man City. But that doesn’t stop the football team trying, so why should it stop us? He’s obviously got to find some improvement but he’s a big horse and I think he’s improving all the time.
“ On bare form, he needs to find a length-and-a-half with Ancient Truth [who beat him by that margin at Newmarket in July]. From memory, we’re a much bigger horse than Ancient Truth and while, of course, he could have improved too, we might have more scope for improvement. That has to be the hope.”
In the context of Saturday’s race, “Liverpool and Man City” are the twin powers of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, whose Desert Flower was a deeply impressive winner of the Group One Fillies’ Mile on Friday, and Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable in Ireland. O’Brien will saddle three of the six Dewhurst runners, including the favourite, The Lion In Winter, while Godolphin field Ancient Truth and Shadow Of Light, the recent winner of the Middle Park Stakes.
But Seagulls Eleven has a decent each-way chance on his form in the Group One National Stakes in Ireland last month, and he has more than repaid the 50,000 guineas (£52,500) his owners spent to buy him at Book 1 last year, a relative bargain-basement price for the same sale at which Joorabchian has been splurging seven-figure sums for bloodstock this week.
Seagulls Eleven was one of three horses bought at last year’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale to join Palmer’s stable to race for the “Two Plus Three Two Plus Four” syndicate, which is headed by Brighton’s veteran midfielder James Milner and includes striker Danny Welbeck and Milner’s former colleague at Liverpool and Brighton, Adam Lallana, now along the south coast at Southampton.
Given that at least six horses in every 10 do not manage even a single win in their careers, the syndicate has already enjoyed considerable success.
“It’s been magical,” Palmer said. “They’ve had such a good year and I hope it continues. It’s a lottery, buying racehorses, and they have all been winners, they’ve all won bonuses [from the auction rings where they were sold] and they’ve got a really good one as well. I don’t think sadly that any of them will be able to come, because those that are playing internationally are playing internationally, and those that aren’t are probably making plans to get away [during the international break].
“But what’s lovely is that while they can’t take as close an interest as some owners do, they all seem emotionally invested in it and they engage. James Milner had a syndicate of Liverpool players a couple of years ago who were so unengaged that he ended up calling the syndicate Nobody Ever Replies, whereas these guys seem to be really enjoying it. It’s one of racing’s great strengths that you can watch horses run now wherever you are in the world.”
If Seagulls Eleven runs up to form on Saturday, Palmer hopes to give him one more run this season at the Breeders’ Cup meeting at Del Mar in California, while the trainer feels he has already done enough at two to merit a place in the field for the 2,000 Guineas next spring.
“The Dewhurst is normally the best two-year-old race in Europe every year and it’s exciting to be involved in it again,” the trainer said. “We were second with Dubawi Legend [in 2021] and we’ll see if we can go one better.
“Unless he runs appallingly and Oisin [Murphy] gets off and says he needs a break, I expect we’ll be going to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup as well. And he’s already done enough to line up in the 2,000 Guineas next year. That would be plan A, anyway.”
Murphy will be easy to spot on Saturday – he will be the jockey in blue-and-white stripes – but Palmer, a Newcastle fan, will hope any celebrations among the owners do not extend beyond Newmarket as Brighton are the next visitors at St James’ Park, a week on Saturday.
Sixandahalf leads Irish challenge
Horses trained in Ireland have won five of the last six runnings of the Cesarewitch Handicap and the Irish hold a strong hand again in the latest renewal at Newmarket on Saturday, with 13 of the 25 declared runners and nine of the top dozen in the betting.
Several of the Irish challengers are lightly raced on the Flat and potential handicap blots, including the likely favourite, Willie Mullins’s Sea Of Sands.
Newmarket: 1.15 Ancient Rome 1.50 Shackleton 2.25 Delacroix 3.00 The Lion In Winter 3.40 Sixandahalf (nap) 4.15 Spell Master 4.50 Alfa Kellenic.
York: 1.30 Bolo Neighs 2.05 Paddy The Squire (nb) 2.40 Strike Red 3.15 Valiant Knight 3.55 Almeric 4.30 Merrijig 5.05 Surrey Fire.
Chepstow: 1.35 My Noble Lord 2.10 Kourosh 2.45 Boombawn 3.20 Tune In A Box 4.00 La Domaniale 4.35 Stolen Silver 5.10 Holokea.
Hexham: 1.55 Monochromix 2.30 Joecooker 3.05 Rockola Vogue 3.45 Dare To Shout 4.20 Velasco 4.55 Kicksaftersix 5.25 Farmer Jimmy.
Chelmsford City: 4.10 Antonin Dvorak 4.45 Twitch 5.20 Baraq 5.50 H Key Lails 6.20 Dark Side Thunder 6.50 Balon D’Or 7.20 Araifjan 7.50 Marching Mac 8.20 Mc’Ted.
The best recent form on offer, meanwhile, appears to be last month’s Irish Cesarewitch at the Curragh. Gavin Cromwell’s progressive filly Sixandahalf (3.40) was beaten a length-and-a-half there and races off just a 1lb higher mark on Saturday, with Robert Whearty’s handy 3lb claim also a positive.
Newmarket 1.15: Liberty Lane will be fancied to back up his big effort in the Cambridgeshire but has had just two weeks to recover and Ancient Rome, who often operates at a higher level than this, could be a value alternative at around 5-1.
York 1.30: Bolo Neighs was a wide-margin winner of a sales race in Ireland last time and while he probably had the run of the race against the rail, the form was backed up by a strong time.
Newmarket 1.50: This step up to 10 furlongs looks sure to suit Shackleton, a son of Camelot who was off the mark with something to spare at the Curragh last time.
York 2.05: A high draw left Paddy The Squire with an impossible task in the Cambridgeshire last time but he had been consistent and progressive to that point and could well outrun early odds of around 16-1 here.
Goodwood: 1.50 Judgementofsolomon 2.25 Just King High 3.00 Alcazan 3.35 Mayday Malone (nap) 4.10 Castle Gates 4.45 Alpha Crucis (nb) 5.20 Phoenix Passion.
Ffos Las: 2.10 Moviddy 2.45 Wicked Thoughts 3.20 Moveit Like Minnie 3.55 Jipcot 4.30 Gavin 5.05 Johnny Mac 5.40 Tamarind Bay.
Newmarket 2.25: Aidan O’Brien’s Delacroix was beaten half-a-length in a Group Two last time and will take plenty of beating dropping back to Group Three company.
York 2.40: Strike Red won this race two years ago off a 1lb lower mark, has been running consistently in similar events and will appreciate the ease in the ground.
Newmarket 3.00: The form of The Lion In Winter’s front-running success in the Acomb at York in August looks rock-solid with Wimbledon Hawkeye, the runner-up, winning a Group Two next time and he is highly likely to supply Aidan O’Brien with a ninth win in the UK’s championship event for juvenile colts.
