THE WEATHERBYS BRITISH EBF MAIDEN STAKES

from Newmarket Racecard - Friday 14th July

OUR ORIGINS

Race ﬁve on today’s card is the Weatherbys British EBF Maiden Stakes, a two-yearold contest staged over seven furlongs and a race which was won 12 months ago by Epictetus, who went on to chase home dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin in Group 1 company and was himself victorious at Epsom, when taking the Blue Riband Trial on reappearance.

Four of the dozen boast racecourse experience, with both Mnawekh and Warm Spell having finished runner-up on debut. The former couldn’t match the winner at Chester, but finished nicely, whilst similar comments apply to the run of Warm Spell at Goodwood, where he chased home Thunder Blue, who has since finished fifth in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot. He is rated 94, whilst the third home is rated 78, so the handicapper suggests that Roger Varian’s Mehmas colt ran to a mark in the low 80s on debut. He cost 260,000gns as a yearling and should appreciate the extra furlong.

Both Dallas Star (8th) and Matnookh (11th) contested the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot last time and the former was handy throughout, leading the far side group He also made the running when third at Haydock, so expect him to be ridden positively by Kevin Stott. In contrast, Matnookh was slowly away at Windsor and was again ridden with restraint at Ascot, before making late progress. If the cheek-pieces have an impact and he is a little sharper out of the gate, Richard Fahey’s Sea The Stars colt could well turn the form around.

Given that Charlie Appleby has saddled the winner of this race three times since 2017, Emperor’s Star is an obvious starting point when assessing the chances of the newcomers. Another by Sea The Stars, he is out of a half-sister to Group 1 winner Cloth Of Stars (won the 2017 Prix Ganay) and cost €300,000 as a yearling. With Appleby in such ﬁne form (8 winners from 16 runners between 29th June and 7th July, four of which were juveniles), he is very much one for any shortlist.

Aidan O’Brien is another trainer in ﬁne form at present and he sends across the Justify colt, Capulet, from his Ballydoyle base His sire had a nice two-year-old winner at the start of the month, when City Of Troy won by 2½ lengths at the Curragh and the trip looks right for this debut, with him being out of the Galileo mare, Wedding Vow.

Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, owner of Warm Spell, has a second runner in the race, that being the Andrew Balding-trained Arabic Legend. A Dubawi colt, he is a full-brother to Youngest, who won over this trip on her racecourse debut at Leicester last September

Of the remainder, Swift Victory is a half-brother to a two-year-old debutant winner, in the shape of Yorkshire Gold, whilst the 100,000gns breeze-ups purchase User Amistoso hails from a nice family, being by Wootton Bassett and out of a Nayef mare, who is a half-sister to a couple of winners. Those winners include Showroom, who won his only start at two, for Mark Johnston and Highclere. At the time of writing, however, Michael Bell is 0-16 during July and is 0-28 with his two-year-old runners this season.

Paul Ferguson

Weatherbys

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