Richard Fahey column: My Royal Ascot two-year-old team
Our columnist is sending his strongest ever team of two-year-olds to Royal Ascot. Check out his thoughts on them all.
WATCH: Richard Fahey talks David Ord through his two-year-old team
BOMBAY BAZAAR
It will be either the Norfolk or Windsor Castle for him. The latter is a great race but you tend to find it’s the biggest field of the week for two-year-olds and as the draw goes on during the week you realise ten don’t have a chance from their stalls so you could be better of running in what is supposedly the better race where the draw isn’t quite so significant. We’ve found that over the years the Windsor Castle does tend to fill and the draw is vital.
He's a homebred horse who didn’t go to the sales so everything is a huge, new experience to him and he was always messing around and thinking everything was a game at home.
Mentally, the races have done him the world of good, his best piece of work was before he won at Beverley on Saturday, and he’s still progressing. I never thought he was going to get beat on Saturday. He’s a good, hardy horse who knows how to win and deserves to head to Ascot.
EMPEROR’S SON
He’s in the Coventry and will be put in the Norfolk too. If I was picking now I’d say Coventry but that can all change if we get soft ground and a few other things.
His work is very good at home, we’re very pleased with him and we’ll decide closer to the time where to run. They all did their final serious piece of work on Tuesday and everything worked great – we were delighted with them.
He got knocked over coming out of the gates on debut and it sort of set him alight. Oisin said for the first furlong-and-a-half he was taking him on and he’s not like that but I don’t blame him for being a bit keen and doing everything a little sideways but he stuck his head down, battled on and had a real good go to beat a 2/5 chance that had quite a tall reputation.
We couldn’t knock him really that day and he breezed on Tuesday and we were delighted with how it went.
FLACCIANELLO
There were a lot of fancied ones in the Catterick maiden she won on debut and she was a little bit on her head but got there to win. I have to speak to the Amo team as they have an awful lot of good two-year-olds to sort through but I'd imagine it will be the Albany, she has to go six furlongs on what we saw on debut where they went very quick and she stayed on to grab them at the death. She worked OK the other day without sparkling but I’ll see what the owners are thinking.
GOLDEN MIND
He’s quite a laidback character and not really as tuned in as his half-brother Perfect Power was. He's quite relaxed and doesn't work with natural speed but on Tuesday he did his best ever piece of work and the two runs have really helped him.
I'd say we’ll run him in the Chesham. He came home really well to win at Leicester and I think the step up to seven furlongs will really suit.
MALC
You tend to give horses multiple entries next week, I suspect plenty of others will do the same, and he’ll be put in the Norfolk and the Windsor Castle and we’ll see what we think.
There’s a little question mark around how much rain they’re going to get on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and that might make us enter a little more than we usually would but we’ll see what they get and make a decision nearer the time.
We expected him to win at Carlisle. He was an expensive breeze-up horse for us at 140,000 guineas, although not expensive in terms of those sales in general, and did his job in Cumbria. I expect he’ll improve plenty from it too.
MATNOOKH
He sat in the gates when they opened at Windsor on debut and was four lengths last but came home well. He’ll go to the Chesham too.
It will be tough on him but the owner is keen to have a go and we’ll head that way and let him take his chance. He's qualified for the race and is a potential improver.
MIDNIGHT AFFAIR
We like her a lot. Unlike a few of the other ones she's quite a laidback character but her work is very good at home, she has a lot of natural speed and I haven’t got her off the bridle on our gallops yet. She's one of the rarities in that her work companions are older horses just to try and get her going a little quicker, she plays with my other two-year-old fillies.
I thought it was a good, solid performance in the Hilary Needler, she was always in control of the race and she'll improve again.
It sounds silly as a trainer but when you think they’re this good you expect them to go to the races, think it’s a piece of work and work all over them as she does at home. But she did it well enough on ground that was as quick as she'd want it.
She'll be in the Albany and the Queen Mary but on her homework I’d be very comfortable in the five-furlong race.
PRETTY CRYSTAL
I remember Peter Easterby telling me one day that even the really good ones can get beaten at Ripon, but she did it well on debut there. She’s a homebred filly who’d never left her farm or Musley Bank before going to the track that day and her homework had been pretty good.
I was quietly impressed with her on Tuesday and her Ascot date was booked then and there. She runs in the Albany.
The two fillies, Midnight Affair and Pretty Crystal, excite me and on homework the two colts, Emperor's Son and Golden Mind, would be our other best chances in the two-year-old races at Ascot.
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