Experience to guide baby at Royal Ascot
Trainer Mark Young will break new ground when he travels two-year-old Luck Favours to England for the Royal Ascot meeting.
It will be Young’s first international foray and victory would be his biggest success.
By former Australian galloper Starspangledbanner and bred to northern hemisphere time, Luck Favours leaves on Wednesday with Lindsay Park’s Redkirk Warrior.
Starspangledbanner won the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2010 for Aidan O’Brien after starting his career in Australia with Leon Corstens.
Luck Favours runs on day two of the Royal meeting in the Group Two Queen Mary Stakes on June 20 while Redkirk Warrior is aimed at the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on June 23.
Owned by Anthony Mithen’s Rosemount Stud, and being northern hemisphere bred, Luck Favours is six months behind the southern hemisphere two-year-olds racing in Australia
She has shown improvement in her trials winning her latest over 800m at Werribee last week.
“I like the aspect of thinking outside the square, which Mitho does,” Young said.
“If it can work and you’ve got the horse, and our horses do really well here, there’s no reason why they can’t go across to the UK and race horses their own age.
“If we had a two-year-old here in September, that had had three trials, run good time, you’d run it first-up in the Maribyrnong Stakes (at Flemington).
“If you didn’t win then you’d go off and chase a maiden another day.
“It might not be right this time but they’ll get it right as time goes by.”
Young is not understating the enormity of the task with approximately 26 hours flying time along with an extra four hours on the road.
He says it is an advantage to have a travelling companion in Redkirk Warrior and the experience of Lindsay Park on the trip.
“It’s a big trip away for a baby,” he said.
“I’ve flown with horses plenty of times, but not that far.
“It’s pretty obvious what’s needed. The quicker you can get there the better and then get back what ever they lose (weight) on the flight.
“You need to get back to where you started from, and maybe even a bit more.”
Oisin Murphy, who rode in Australia for Danny O’Brien in 2013, has been approached to ride Luck Favours as has Sydney jockey James McDonald who will be riding Equilateral for Charlie Hills in the Commonwealth Cup.
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