By Emma Berry
Last year's 1000 Guineas winner Cachet (Ire) has resumed cantering in Newmarket and is reported to be “doing very well” by her trainer George Boughey.
The daughter of Aclaim (Ire) propelled the already upwardly mobile trainer to new heights last season when she became Boughey's first Classic winner and she has given her owners in the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing syndicate much cause for cheer through her two seasons of racing. A graduate of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale of 2021, Cachet won on debut at the Rowley Mile a month after the sale and gained important black type later in her juvenile season when finishing second in the G2 Rockfel S. and third in the G1 Fillies' Mile. Her love affair with her home track was fully confirmed the following spring, however, when Cachet bounced straight from winning the Nell Gwyn to becoming a Classic heroine in the Guineas. She was only narrowly denied a fortnight later when beaten a head into second by Mangoustine (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and was seen for the final time last year when finishing fifth in the G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot.
“She had one little thing after another which meant she keep missing bits of work at the back end of the year, but I was delighted to have Highclere's full support to give her the time and she's really starting to show her old self again, which is great,” Boughey told TDN on Wednesday.
“She had a good long break and I think she has grown a little bit, but she was big enough as she was. I am just hoping that with her direct family–Aclaim and being out of a Teofilo (Ire) mare–that she will continue to progress with time. She's a filly who had been very busy at two and then very busy at three, but the good ones are usually very tough, so I hope that she will go on and do it again this year.”
He continued, “She was the one that took us to that level and we just want to try to maintain that. To have a horse of her quality at proven Group 1 level, it's very exciting coming into this new season. She came back in at the end of last year and was trotting for a long time and has been gently cantering up Warren Hill, then she did her first normal canter this morning.”
Boughey indicated that the G3 Chartwell Fillies' S. over seven furlongs at Lingfield on May 13 could be a possible reintroduction to the track for Cachet.
“I'm not really training her with any target in mind. The programme for older fillies doesn't really get going until after Ascot at a higher level. She could possibly be a Chartwell filly. That's the second week of May and it's kind of that intermediate trip, which could be where her future lies. I'm not going to lob her straight back into a Group 1 but I do want to explore bringing her back in trip, and being able to give her the chance to sprint might open up a few more doors.”
Cachet rightfully retains her status as stable star but Boughey, who set a personal best when saddling 136 winners in Britain last year, along with some notable international raids, has a sizeable string to look forward to this season. The year has started well with Al Dasim (Ire) (Harry Angel {Ire}) having won his two starts in Dubai to follow on from two victories last autumn for the stable. The 3-year-old heads to the G3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint on Saturday.
“We are just starting to step them up,” said Boughey. “We had a bunch on the grass this morning and the 2-year-olds are coming along. We're trying to increase the older horse quality and it takes a while to build up that number. It has been nice through the winter to have Al Dasim doing it out in Dubai and he's favourite for the Group 3 on Super Saturday.”
The trainer is also pleased with the progress of another colt from the first crop of Harry Angel, Proverb (Ire), who won the Listed Criterium de Vitesse at Longchamp last October after winning twice in Britain.
“Again he's owned by Highclere and was a pretty inexpensive breeze-up purchase, and he seems to have done very well,” Boughey noted. “He's by Harry Angel, who is a sire who has gripped me a little bit at the moment. We've got two nice horses by him and a bunch of 2-year-olds who seems to be going the right way.
“Proverb is probably only a few weeks away [from running] and there's a race for him at Chantilly on 21 March; he's pretty forward.”
Al Dasim | Racingfotos.com
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