His Highness the Aga Khan Monday paid the £16,000 fee to supplement his
rapidly-improving three-year-old filly ALANZA (Dubai Destination) to Saturday’s Sun Chariot S.
(Eng-G1) at Newmarket. Successful twice
at listed level in Ireland before shipping over to Britain to add the Sceptre
S. (Eng-G1) to her tally at Doncaster last time September 8, the John Oxx trainee will bid to
provide her owner-breeder with a second renewal having captured the 1990 version
with Kartajana (Ire).
“The weather looks like it will be dry
enough for Alanza, but she goes well enough on good-to-firm, which the ground
seems likely to be,” Oxx commented. “She came out of her Doncaster run very
well — she came home in good form — and it was probably a case of going for this
race or doing nothing with her for the rest of the year.
“It is a bit of a chance
supplementing her, but she looks so well in herself that we are letting her run
at Newmarket. She doesn’t have a Group 1 rating at the moment and she has a
good bit to go, but we felt that she would make a nice four-year-old and she has
a lot of things going for her — she is very tough, consistent and reliable.
Running her at Newmarket will point us in one direction or another with regards
to whether she can make the grade next season.”
Among her 13 opponents for the
£174,400 prize is SAHPRESA (Sahm), who will attempt to become the first triple
winner of the race. Successful in the last two editions for Douglas McIntyre,
the Rodolphe Collet-trained six-year-old will be racing in the Teruya Yoshida
silks this time and she is set to renew rivalry with her July 8 Falmouth S.
(Eng-G1) conqueror TIMEPIECE (Zamindar), who finished behind her when the pair
were second and third respectively in the Prix Rothschild (Fr-G1) at Deauville July 31.
The Sir Henry Cecil-trained Timepiece is one of two Juddmonte possibles
alongside the impressive September 3 Matron S. (Ire-G1) heroine EMULOUS (Dansili
[GB]) from the Dermot Weld stable, while Aidan O’Brien has a duo engaged
including Derrick Smith’s TOGETHER (Ire) (Galileo [Ire]). She was filling the
runner’s-up spot for the fourth time at this level in the Matron last time.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s unbeaten July 2 listed Distaff S. winner
NAHRAIN (Selkirk), the July 29 Oak Tree S. (Eng-G3) scorer CHACHAMAIDEE (Footstepsinthesand
[GB]) and last year’s runner-up STRAWBERRYDAIQUIRI (Dansili [GB]) are other
notables.