Australia's top racehorse coming to Britain to compete at Royal Ascot

24 January 2023 , 15:07

622     0

Anamoe: the Cox Plate winner is heading to Britain in the summer to run at Royal Ascot (Image: Getty Images)

Australia’s latest superstar racehorse Anamoe is coming to Britain this summer to compete at Royal Ascot.

A year after Nature Strip romped to victory in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes, Cox Plate winner Anamoe is about to embark on a programme set to peak in one of the royal meeting's two other showcase races.

The colt, who is trained by James Cummings for Godolphin, will contest either the Queen Anne Stakes or the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and could have a warm-up in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

Anamoe has not run since taking his Group 1-winning score to seven by capturing Australia’s all-aged championship race in October but is being prepared to return to action in New South Wales next month in the February 11 Apollo Stakes.

"His ultimate goal this year would be to get to Royal Ascot and so his autumn would revolve around that," Cummings told the Racing.com website

Oisin Murphy secures ride in £1.25 million race on return from 14-month ban

"We're looking at three to four runs in the autumn with him. We want to bring him over to Europe with plenty of residual fitness from his Australian campaign, we would like him to be full of stored energy by the time he gets there, so he can have his opportunity to produce his best run there."

Cumming said the Queen Anne, over a mile, and the Prince Of Wales, which is run over a mile and a quarter, were his two June options.

"He'd be more likely to run in a Queen Anne, but it wouldn't hurt to have him nominated in both races, just in case you'd bump into a Baaeed, then you would avoid the Queen Anne and the Prince Of Wales's looks like the better option," Cummings explained.

"Having said that, both races are looking extremely strong this year and there's no hiding at Royal Ascot no matter where you run. He'd be a little foreign up the straight over a mile for the first time in his career, but if he's to win at Royal Ascot, then he's going to have to deal with a foreign challenge."

He went on: “I've considered running him in the Lockinge a month beforehand and I haven't completely given up on that, as it tends to be a clearly suitable lead-up to the Queen Anne but running him fresh off the plane has got its advantages too.”

Anamoe will be based at Charlie Appleby's Moulton Paddocks stables in Newmarket but will remain under Cummings’s supervision.

"I'd say the trip overseas would be the horse's swansong," he said. "He'll be ready to cover mares by the end of the year."

Jon Lees