The Breeders' Cup-bound duo of Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) and Big Mojo (Ire) (Mohaather {GB}) both pleased trainer Mick Appleby after taking spins around Southwell on Thursday. The pair, owned by Paul and Rachael Teasdale's RP Racing, will be ridden at Del Mar next month by Tom Marquand, who was aboard for Thursday's activities.
In a similar move that resulted in Grade I accolades last term, Big Evs galloped five furlongs along the home bend before finishing at the one-furlong mark in company with stablemate Blind Beggar (Ire) (Equiano {Fr}).
Appleby said of his GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint hero, “I think he worked really well. Tom was saying he's got a bit lazy and he knows he is good so he just does as much as he wants to do.
“Today will be the last time he's seen on a British racecourse and I've been coming to Southwell a long time–they do a great job here and Mark Clayton [executive director] is absolutely brilliant.
“He needed that as well because we've freshened him up since his last run and it will have blown away the cobwebs. We did exactly the same last year before we went to the Breeders' Cup.”
Big Evs won a listed race at York in May, before running third in the G1 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot. The G2 King George Stakes went his way in August, and he was last seen running eighth to Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}) in the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes later that month. His target is the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.
Big Mojo, who broke his maiden in Goodwood's G3 Molecomb Stakes at second asking in July, ran fourth in the G2 Gimcrack Stakes at York a month later. He was only a neck second to Wathnan Racing's Aesterius (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) in the G2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster on Sept. 13, and will try his hand at Del Mar to give his connections a second consecutive Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Appleby added, “He went round the bend really well and that was the main thing to get him going round at speed. He did very well and changed legs at the right time so really good.
“He's a good horse with a lot of natural speed. I imagine next year he is going to be a six-furlong horse, but I imagine this will be absolutely fine for him.
“He's got the natural speed that Big Evs has and I think he's going to be a better three-year-old and I think he will be going out there with a live chance.”
Shareholder Also In Action At Southwell
Wathnan Racing's retained jockey James Doyle faces a difficult choice for the GI Breeders' Cup Juveniel Turf, as he has a chance to ride either Aesterius or Shareholder (Not This Time) in the event next month in the colours of the Emir of Qatar. He took the latter out for a Southwell gallop on Thursday for Karl Burke.
Doyle said, “It's not an easy decision, but a nice one to have to make. I'll leave it as late as possible before deciding. They're in good shape and they've had gallops around a bend and similar workouts–Aesterius went to Kempton and worked anti-clockwise.
“It was not necessarily a test of his ability just a case of giving him that experience of going fast round a turn, similar to Shareholder here today. They are both in good shape and I couldn't be happier with them. They've done a good job so far for myself and Wathnan and anything else they do this year will be a bonus.”
Shareholder has been off since an unplaced run in the G1 Prix Morny.
He added of the American-bred G2 Norfolk Stakes winner, “I was very pleased with Shareholder, it was a nice exercise for him to do. It was his first gallop around a turn and he handled it well. He's in good order and I was very pleased.
“He's very fast, very quick. It is always hard to know how he will get on and it is always a different story when you get out to America. It's a different test and one he will not have faced before, but you couldn't be happier with his preparation anyway.”
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