Sharp miler Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) has pleased trainer Ralph Beckett in his preparations for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Keeneland, the trainer revealed on Friday.
Marc Chan's 5-year-old gelding is riding a four-race winning streak, and after victories in the G2 City Of York S. and the G2 Park S. in August and September, found France to his liking with a two-length victory in the G1 Prix de la Foret. He added an exclamation point to his season with a 2 1/4-length tally in the G1 British Champions Sprint S. at Ascot on Oct. 15 and appears in prime condition to add to his laurels at Keeneland next month.
“He's been training well,” said Beckett, who won the 2008 Breeders' Cup Marathon with Muhannak (Ire) (Chester House). “We are treading quite a fine line as he has been so busy. I'm happy with him, he is moving well and looks well.”
Added Beckett, “I don't think he will better that performance on Champions Day. That is as good as it gets–to drop back to six furlongs and win as he did, it takes a bit of doing. He will have to equal that performance in America if he is to win.
“The [GI] Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint would have been too sharp for him. He is very adaptable. He has won around Goodwood and York, it comes all alike to him in that sense, so I have no concerns around him handling the track at Keeneland.
“He is very effective on soft ground. I don't think he is capable of winning over six furlongs on fast ground, but he won the City of York S. over seven on fast ground. The ground won't matter to him.”
'Saffron' To Stay Home
Dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), who will be offered during the Sceptre Sessions of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale at the end of November, will not take her chance in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf after returning poor blood work, according to trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam.
Racing in the red and white colours of Ben and Lucy Sangster, their son Ollie and James Wigan, the 4-year-old claimed the G1 Sun Chariot S. in 2021, and after running a good fourth in the G1 Dubai Turf in March, scored a resounding success in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot. A 2 1/2-length tour-de-force in the G1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville in August followed, and she was second in the G1 Matron S. at Leopardstown last month. She ran eighth in defence of her Sun Chariot crown on Oct. 1, and returned a dirty scope off of that effort.
Chapple-Hyam said, “I drew blood on Wednesday to look at her profile and it wasn't good, so we started her on a course of antibiotics and we looked at the profile again on Thursday.
“Even though it had improved, it is not in the right zone to be putting her on an aircraft and potentially giving a bug to everyone else and perhaps getting travel sickness.
“We couldn't take the risk for the welfare of her and all the others on the aircraft, so we decided not to go.”
Chapple-Hyam has entered the chestnut in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile on Dec. 11, and, depending on who purchases Saffron Beach at Tattersalls, an international campaign has not been ruled out.
“She has an entry in the Tattersalls December Mares' Sale and if the lucky purchaser would like to run her in the Hong Kong Mile, if she is fit and well, she has been invited to that race and I have accepted,” Chapple-Hyam added. “It is disappointing not to run in the Breeders' Cup, but that is horse racing. We take the good and the bad.
“We have been very lucky to win two Group 1s with her and, who knows, the new owner may want to run her in Hong Kong.”
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