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Glasgow Times
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Glasgow Times
Davison backing She's Quality to Charge to Sandown glory
The four-year-old has finished second in both the Palace House and Temple Stakes this term but is backed to make it a third-time lucky on her latest raid from Ireland, with her handler confident he has a rising force in the sprint division on his hands. Davison said: 'She's done nothing wrong this year and we're hugely looking forward to Saturday. 'I can say with a fair degree of certainty she's a different horse this year and is thriving through the summer months, so hopefully she can take another step forward on Saturday. Trainer Jack Davison has plenty of confidence in She's Quality (Lorraine O'Sullivan/PA) 'I think she is the up-and-comer in this division and hopefully she can properly announce herself on Saturday. 'She's very fast and can make quick horses look not so quick. She's exciting and if it all comes together right, then hopefully she can get her head in front.' Jonathan Portman's Rumstar finished ahead of She's Quality at Newmarket in May before seeing form reversed at Haydock in a race won by Ed Walker's Mgheera. Rumstar then finished down the field (14th) in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race in which George Scott's West Acre (13th), Walker's Balmoral Lady (9th) and John Ryan's Manaccan (20th) all failed to figure and will be looking to bounce back here. Walker, who won this race 12 months ago with Makarova and in 2021 with Came From The Dark, said of Balmoral Lady: 'She has a shocking draw, again, which is not very helpful, but we'll have a go. She's an exciting sprinter.' Kerdos will have the assistance of Christophe Soumillon (Nigel French/PA) Faring best in that Group One event was Clive Cox's Kerdos who after unshipping Christophe Soumillon on the way to post, finished strongly in fifth and is now reunited with the crack Belgian jockey for this Group Three contest. 'He showed up really well in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot and came out of it really well, so I would hope a stiff five furlongs at Sandown would be suitable,' said Cox. 'There's a very fine line with these sprinters right from Listed level through to Group One, but it's good to have a horse that is strengthening and has that maturity now to mirror our thoughts about him being a top-class sprinter.' A Royal Ascot winner in the line-up is Simon and Ed Crisford's Adrestia, who steps up in grade after landing the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes with a degree of ease, while Jack Channon has always held course scorer Queen All Star in the highest regard and she is another to step out of the handicap ranks. Queen All Star is a course winner (Andrew Matthews/PA) 'She won nicely there before, but it is a massive jump up in grade against older horses,' said Channon. 'We'll get a good idea exactly where she lies and no matter what the result on Saturday, she's still a very good filly going forward.' Jessica Harrington's Saratoga Special won the Listed Land O'Burns Fillies' Stakes while all eyes were on Ascot and is another heading to Esher on the back of a victory, with Mick Appleby's Shagraan and Eve Johnson Houghton's Change Sings completing the field.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Track Record-Setting West Acre Has Breeders' Cup Aspirations Via Royal Ascot
Track Record-Setting West Acre Has Breeders' Cup Aspirations Via Royal Ascot originally appeared on Paulick Report. Michael Blencowe's West Acre (IRE) will aim to cement his place among Europe's top sprinters when he lines up for the King Charles III Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot on June 17 – a key fixture in the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 93 stakes races in 15 countries whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race at the Breeders' Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, California. Trained by George Scott, 3-year-old West Acre has made rapid progress since his belated debut late last year. Despite missing most of his juvenile season with a setback, the son of Mehmas (IRE) has burst onto the scene with two Group victories in Dubai – most notably breaking the track record at Meydan in the Blue Point Sprint (G2) before following up in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint (G3) in March. Advertisement 'His racing career started late, because of an issue that he picked up as a young horse,' Scott said. 'As he went through the grades you could see him growing in confidence. He won the Blue Point really impressively; he'd probably had a harder race than we anticipated that day. He's come back now and he's fresh and well and looks like he's at the peak of his powers again.' Now freshened up and thriving at home in Newmarket, West Acre returns to British soil for the first time in 2025 and takes on a strong field in the King Charles III Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, where Scott had a winner last year with Victorious Racing's Isle of Jura (GB). 'We had a winner last year. We won the Hardwicke with Isle of Jura, we felt it was a big moment,' Scott said. 'You're instantly recognizable as a stable when you have success there. It's part of the growth as a young stable that you really need. We've got a team of horses going there this year. If we have a clear week with them in the build-up, we hope something might happen.' Scott is hopeful conditions will suit West Acre at Royal Ascot. 'Fast ground, strong pace, the track should really suit him,' he said. 'The weather looks like it is going to be dry next week, so we'd like a nice fast track to get him started back here on.' The race serves as a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the Prevagen Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1), granting the winner an automatic fees-paid berth into the $1 million contest at Del Mar in November. Scott is no stranger to the meeting, having saddled the W J and T C O Gredley-owned James Garfield (IRE) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) at Del Mar in 2017. 'James Garfield was my first good horse and Frankie (Dettori) rode him in the Breeders' Cup,' Scott said. 'It didn't really get much better than that at the time. It certainly gave me the appetite to want to come back. So West Acre's season we'll see how it all pans out, but the plan is to end up at Del Mar with him.' Scott is a big supporter of the Breeders' Cup, enjoying his time in America and American racing. 'You've got that real international theme at the Breeders' Cup,' he said. 'I really enjoy the way the Breeders' Cup do things. They try to bring the best horses in the world together and in true American style it's bigger and better than anything else.' This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
