NEWMARKET, ENGLAND // Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed’s new silver silks will be showcased for the first time in a Classic race when Lumiere clashes with Minding in the English 1,000 Guineas here Sunday.
The all-silver silks with a tassel on the cap have replaced the Crown Prince of Dubai’s red and green colours. The cornflower blue silks that his Fazza Racing operation utilises in Dubai are also likely to be retired for the foreseeable future.
Sutter County became the first winner in the new silks when the colt scrambled home in a Conditions race here for trainer Mark Johnston and William Buick two weeks ago.
Sheikh Hamdan bought the silks in October at Graham Budd’s auction for a British record price of £120,000 (Dh643,950) and William Buick will wear them aboard the grey filly. For good measure James Doyle will wear the second colours, with a blue cap, on Fireglow, a dual Listed winner and Lumiere’s gallop partner.
“They became available at auction and they are beautiful silver silks and for him it made sense to buy them,” John Ferguson, Godolphin’s racing manager and chief executive said.
“He’s the Crown Prince of Dubai – so he deserves them. I would say that these silks will now replace those he has used in Dubai as well. It is great for Sheikh Hamdan and it is good for racing that he shows such enthusiasm.”
Winning a first Guineas with the silks would be quite a statement, and Johnston has never hid his admiration for Lumiere ever since she put in a stellar gallop under work rider Ross Kennemore last season.
Lumiere won her first race at Newmarket in July last year before she was beaten by Sheikh Rashid Dalmook’s Besharah in the Lowther Stakes at York in August. She crowned her juvenile season with revenge over Besharah and Sunday’s rival Illuminate with a win in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes here in September.
Those races were over 1,200 metres, but Johnston has no doubt the daughter of dual French Classic winner Shamardal will appreciate the step up to 1,600 metres.
“Physically and under pedigree she is bred to get every inch of it,” the trainer said. “She doesn’t look like a sprinter and looking at her she looks a middle distance horse. The question with her is the temperament and she is so keen and so fast early on. She is a lot more settled now, but whether she is like that when the stalls open in the Guineas, who knows.
“If she goes fast, she goes fast. Last year she looked the scopiest of the field, so she should get it.
“She looks to have grown, height wise, but she will be running off the same weight as the Cheveley Park last year. Although she’s taller, it is normal to expect they don’t put on any weight from two to three.”
Johnston said he has never worked a Classic filly with a horse of the calibre of Fireglow before and Lumiere will have to be as good as her trainer hopes she is, if she is to beat Minding.
Minding annihilated Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah’s Nathra in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile last season and is reportedly in good shape.
Minding, who will be ridden by Ryan Moore, spearheads a team of three horses from Aidan O’Brien’s stables with stablemates Ballydoyle and Alice Springs up against 13 others.
Nathra, who will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, won the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes here two weeks ago, a victory which only highlights how good Minding might be, according to John Gosden.
“Nathra is in great form and had a breeze on Tuesday morning,” Nathra’s trainer said.
“I’ve been lucky enough to train four Fillies’ Mile winners and Nathra would have won all of them so to be beaten four lengths by Minding shows how good a filly she is.
“You don’t often hear Ryan Moore talk after races like he did after the Fillies’ Mile. Minding is a truly exceptional filly.”
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