Hear the full interview
From 32:20 in Wednesday’s episode of Nick Luck Daily. Press play to start at the interview.
Breeders’ Cup winner Libertango will go straight to the 1,000 Guineas next spring without a prep run, according to Rob Spears, racing manager to her owner Mr Araci.
George Boughey’s filly won the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Lowther Stakes at York before landing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland under Billy Loughnane. Spears stressed that the final decision rests with Boughey, but said: “Certainly at this stage the plan is to train her for a Guineas. She won’t have a prep, and she’ll go straight there as long as her work in the spring suggests that’s what we should do.”
Will she stay the mile?
The big question is whether Libertango will stay a mile. “We’re very confident she’ll stay seven. Whether she’ll get the mile, I don’t know,” Spears told Nick Luck in Bahrain. “But I think Karl Burke laid out the blueprint last year with Venetian Sun. You can start in the Guineas, and if it doesn’t work, she’s got the Commonwealth Cup and the sprinting options.”
Loughnane, her regular rider, has always believed she will stay. “He has always felt she gets seven furlongs stood on her head,” Spears said. “A week before the Moyglare, we heard there was a chance Sun Goddess might not go, so we worked her over seven on the Summer Gallop, and she galloped right out over the top of some older horses.”
“We’re convinced she’ll get the seven. A mile finishing up the hill on the Rowley Mile, we might not find out until race day.”
Rob Spears on Libertango
For now, Libertango is enjoying a break. “She’s having a slightly quieter time at the moment, but she’ll be back trotting and cantering before we know it,” Spears said.
Glacius a stallion in the making
Mr Araci also runs Glacius, trained by Hugo Palmer, in Friday’s Bahrain International Trophy, with Loughnane riding. “He’s had a wonderful year, and we’ve had some great international travel success,” Spears said. “Hopefully Glacius can run well here for him this week.”
Glacius will stay in training as a four-year-old, and could one day follow Native Khan to Mr Araci’s stud in Turkey. “We’ll try to build on his Grade 1 success in Saratoga,” Spears said. “He was a Group-performing two-year-old and a Grade 1-winning three-year-old, by Too Darn Hot out of an own sister to an Oaks winner. Hopefully we can progress him towards a stallion career. Whether that’s for Mr Araci at his farm in Turkey or in Europe, time will tell over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Native Khan, one of Mr Araci’s first good horses, has been a successful sire in Turkey but is now 18, turning 19. “We’ve been thinking for a little while now about who might be next, and that could be Glacius,” Spears said.
Mr Araci is also expanding his team. “We’re putting 12 yearlings into training next year, split evenly between Hugo and George, both of whom have had excellent years for us,” Spears said.
