Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing have been the talk of the sales season having splashed the cash at Tattersalls, but they already have a smart prospect on their hands in Tuscan Hills, an easy winner of the British Stallion Studs EBF Silver Tankard Stakes.
Three years ago Joorabchian saw his purple silks carried to victory in the Listed event by Mr Professor, who had subsequent Irish Derby winner and Arc runner-up Westover behind him.
Again it was Amo and Juddmonte to the fore with Ralph Beckett’s Calla Lagoon the favourite but he had no answer to Tuscan Hills (7-2), who powered away in the straight to win by almost five lengths and give his trainer Raphael Freire a second win at this level.
David Egan, coming to the end of his first year in the role as retained rider for Amo, was suitably impressed.
He told Racing TV: “It just shows you as he’s a little bit of a sleeper at home. He went to Thirsk on his debut and he wasn’t the finished article and we knew there was a lot of improvement to come, so I actually went and rode another horse somewhere else and Oisin Orr rode him.
“He showed a lot of greenness in the first half of the race but the fact it was a mile on debut gave him time to get the hang of things and Oisin got a really good feel off him that day. He’s shown that again today, he’s handled conditions and travelled through the race really nicely.
“He’s very much one to look forward to and if he can take as much of a leap from his second to his third start as he did from his first to his second, he’ll be an exciting horse next year for sure.”
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