After a weekend to remember, Adrian Murray is relishing another bid for Group One glory at York next week, when Arizona Blaze goes for gold in the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe.<\/p>\n
While stablemate Power Blue caused a major shock against the long odds-on True Love in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes on Saturday and Bucanero Fuerte ran out a Group Three winner on the same Curragh card, Arizona Blaze is vying for favouritism in the five-furlong feature on the Friday of the four-day Ebor Festival.<\/p>\n
Second at the Breeders’ Cup, he has been running to a remarkably consistent level this season in a division that continues to surprise, finishing second in the Commonwealth Cup to Time For Sandals and then winning the Sapphire Stakes by a clear-cut two lengths.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s among the favourites and that is because he always turns up on the day \u2013 hopefully he will do again in the Nunthorpe,” said Murray.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s a very exciting horse, he never runs a bad race and the sprint division is wide open this year. There\u2019s no standout horse this season, all the big sprints are being won by different horses. Ours is one of the favourites, but it\u2019s wide open.<\/p>\n
“I was talking to Roger O\u2019Callaghan (owner of star two-year-old Lady Iman) the other day and they are going to York because of that, it could be a big field. It\u2019s exciting times ahead, for sure.”<\/p>\n
Reflecting on a big-race double for Kia Joorabchian\u2019s Amo Racing he described as “unbelievable”, Murray said: “We expected a run from Bucanero, well we expected a big run from both of them, but we were taking on Aidan O\u2019Brien in the Group One.<\/p>\n
“I was always told never be afraid to run, they don\u2019t win anything stood in their stable.<\/p>\n
“Power Blue ran very quick sectionals all the way and that is what won him it, he has a high cruising speed but isn\u2019t a horse who finds a whole lot off that speed. He can maintain a very high cruising speed.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019ll probably go for the National Stakes now on Champions Weekend, that will be his next target I think. He\u2019s in at York in the sales race, but he\u2019s a Group One winner now.<\/p>\n
“Bucanero was just very comfortable the whole way through the race and the further they went, the more it looked like he was going to win.<\/p>\n
“He was never out of his comfort zone and is a very good horse.”<\/p>\n
Murray went on to praise his assistant Robson Aguiar and his role in the victories.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re very lucky to have these horses and it\u2019s all down to Robson, he\u2019s sourced them and didn\u2019t really spend fortunes on them. He\u2019s a brilliant man at picking these horses,” said Murray.<\/p>\n
“None of the good ones were that expensive in the grand scheme of things, but I think we got a little bit lucky with Bucanero as he\u2019s by Wootton Bassett and we got him just before he really took off.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Spicy Marg is set to be supplemented for the Nunthorpe. <\/p>\n
An impressive winner on her Newmarket debut in early June, Michael Bell\u2019s charge subsequently disappointed in the Queen Mary and the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, but bounced back to form in some style over five furlongs at Goodwood two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
As a juvenile filly Spicy Marg will carry just eight stone if she steps up to take on her elders at Group One level on the Knavesmire and Bell is keen to roll the dice.<\/p>\n
He said: “The plan is to give it a go. All the speed analysts seem to think she should be having a crack at it \u2013 her figures are very, very good \u2013 and she clearly is in very good form.<\/p>\n
“I think it\u2019s very relevant her dam [Main Desire] won two Listed races over five furlongs on the Knavesmire, so it\u2019s in her genes she should like the track and I strongly think she will.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re very happy with her and very much looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n
Another filly bound for the race is the William Knight-trained Frost at Dawn, who was a neck second to American Affair in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot before finishing fourth in the King George at Goodwood.<\/p>\n
Knight said: “She doesn\u2019t need to do much between now and then, she\u2019s put her weight back on already.<\/p>\n
“I just hope and pray the rain stays away at York and if it\u2019s good to firm ground there I think she could run a massive race.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a weekend to remember, Adrian Murray is relishing another bid for Group One glory at York next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-335908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115010560577182000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}