Van Aert
Race entries
We can’t help thinking that this stunning colt, by the Godolphin Derby winning sire MASAR, is something of a freak.
He’s a giant of a horse, who really fills the eye, and will fill any paddock, parade ring or winners’ enclosure, no doubt, in due course, but not only that, his breeze up performance was also freakish. He’s run in a 2.3f race against mainly sprint bred colts and fillies and finished, out of over 200 individuals on quickish ground, in 8th place overall (just under a length behind the winner), with his last sectional timing quicker than any of the 7 horses than finished ahead of him - that simply should not be possible against the cohort of horse he was up against, unless you’re very, very talented.
Tattersalls reported: 'Lot 248: the Masar colt out of Bournemouth Belle (Canford Cliffs), a winner at two and third in the Empress Stakes (L), is bought by Middleham Park Racing for 130,000gns, the colt going into training with Archie Watson.
"He is a lovely horse, a very good physical, he is the sort of horse we love to buy," said Watson. "He did a very good breeze for a horse of his type – he is certainly a 7f / miler type but his times and what he did stood up against sprinter type horse, We had to stretch a bit to get him.
"He has got a chance of being a Chesham horse. We'll get him home and see how he fits in with the others, if he could be Royal Ascot sort then we will look at that, if not I am sure he will still be a lovely horse."
Watch his walk and profile video, here:
Watch his breeze video, here:
It wouldn’t stretch the imagination at all, in our opinion, to assert that he’s the best horse in the sale, bar none - simply extend the 2.3f breeze to a 3f breeze and he’d have won, we’re pretty sure and extend it further, well, who knows? We thought we’d buy him a fair bit cheaper than the 130,000gns that we’ve had to stretch to, it’s fair to say, but Archie & ourselves were determined we weren’t going to be beaten on this one and that he was coming home to Saxon Gate, Lambourn. He was THE ONE to take from the sale.
The plan is to aim for The Chesham at Royal Ascot (see Archie’s quotes, in his Tattersalls Interview, above) however, it’s possible that time may beat us to dovetail it all in for then, in which case, we may have to regroup, but rest assured we feel he’s destined for festival, after festival, after festival, going forward, if our assertions are correct - he’s as exciting a recruit to anyone’s breeze up roster that you could think of.
We love his new racing name of Van Aert - after Wout van Aert, the Belgian professional road racer.