Hear the full interview
From 3:09 in Thursday’s episode of Nick Luck Daily. Press play to start at the interview.
Blue Bolt is now expected to run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf rather than the Mile at Keeneland next week, Juddmonte’s racing manager Barry Mahon has told Nick Luck Daily.
Andrew Balding’s filly has been unbeaten this season, adding the Falmouth, Prix Rothschild, Matron and Sun Chariot to her Royal Ascot win. Connections had spent recent weeks edging towards a clash with Notable Speech in the Mile, but the Filly & Mare Turf, run this year over a mile and three-sixteenths, is now the first preference.
“At the minute, Nick, that’s the way we’re leaning,” Mahon said. “We don’t think the extra bit of distance around Keeneland would be a problem for her. And look, they’re both worth the same money, so the option is there to keep her against her own sex, which makes sense.”
It is not only about the opposition. Mahon pointed to the start of the Keeneland mile, where a wide draw can end a horse’s chance before the race has properly begun.
“If you get drawn a little wide there, they’re quick into that first bend. There’ll just be a lot of carnage, and your race can be over very quickly.”
Barry Mahon, Juddmonte
“I think you have a little bit more time over the nine and a half to get organised,” he said. “So for the filly, it probably makes more sense. It gives her a bit more time, and it just negates that wide draw if you get one.”
Blue Bolt did her last piece of work on Wednesday. “Andrew was very happy, and she’s due to ship out at the end of the week,” Mahon said. Colin Keane will ride.
Red Letter joins her
If Blue Bolt does line up in the Filly & Mare Turf, she will be joined by Ger Lyons’ Red Letter, a Group One third this season. Mahon believes the trip and track are ideal.
“All year we’ve sort of felt that nine and a half around Keeneland would be right up her street,” he said. “Ten furlongs is just stretching her a little bit, so I think the trip will suit her and the track will suit her. Whether she’s quite up to winning a race of that calibre, I don’t know, but if she could get involved in the finish, it’d be great.”
Amusingly and Qirat
Keane also rides Amusingly in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Francis-Henri Graffard dropped her back to seven furlongs to win the Lagardère, and she now steps back up to a mile in what Mahon called “the two-year-old race of the year”, with Aidan O’Brien’s Sun Goddess also in the field.
“In France they tend to go slow and sprint, and we just didn’t feel a mile at that tempo would suit her,” he said. “She’s a forward-going filly, likes to get on with things, and in America they jump and go from the gate, so I think that will help. They’re both stepping into the unknown going a mile.”
Ralph Beckett’s Qirat, winner of the Prix Daniel Wildenstein, is on the reserves list for the Mile but looks likely to get a run, with Keane, Juddmonte’s retained rider, taking over from Silvestre de Sousa. A wide draw ended his chance almost immediately at Del Mar last year, and Mahon said the draw would be key again. “If he manages to get a low draw, I think he’ll love it around there,” he said. “He’s just a tough, hardy horse.”
Speaking on the show, Rishi Persad backed the Blue Bolt decision. “I think they’ve made the right decision,” he said. “I think she’ll take all the beating in the Filly & Mare Turf. As a racing fan, I’d love to have seen her take on Notable Speech, though.”
