Big Evs all set for Santa Anita | Inquisitively Breeders' Cup call yet to be made
By Sporting Life
17:04 · TUE October 17, 2023
Mick Appleby looks to saddle his first runner at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships with the RP Racing Ltd-owned Big Evs (IRE) in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint on November 3.
The son of Blue Point (IRE) has gone from strength to strength since finishing runner-up at Redcar when he made his debut on May 29.
Trainer Appleby, better known for his success on the All-Weather, rates Big Evs as the best horse he has ever trained.
Appleby said: “We first started working him with the other 2-year-old’s and he was just blitzing them. We had to start working him with older horses because none of the 2-year-old’s could live with him.
“He’s definitely the best. We’ve had good ones down the years but not to the standard of Big Evs.”
Since his narrow defeat at Redcar, the Michael Appleby-trained 2-year-old has won three of his four subsequent career starts including in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Flying Childers Stakes where he showed an electric turn of foot.
However, it was after his victory in the Molecomb Stakes at the Qatar Goodwood Festival when Appleby and his team began to give the Breeders’ Cup serious thought.
He said: “We started toying with the idea after Goodwood. I thought he was more impressive at Goodwood in the heavy ground, because he hated the ground. He battled really well and the thought came to us after that.”
Appleby continued: “It’s really exciting. Any trainer always wants to have a runner at the Breeders’ Cup. It’s the best racing in the world so it’s a good boost for the whole yard. He came out of his Doncaster run really well. He’s in great form.”
To prepare Big Evs for Keeneland, Appleby revealed: “We are going to take him for a racecourse gallop round a bend. He’s a pretty straightforward horse and takes everything in his stride so I don’t think it’ll be a problem for him at all, I just hope we don’t get an outside draw.
“We’re just freshening him up at the moment and then we’ll get him back in full work a couple of weeks before he goes.”
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Inquisitively Breeders' call yet to be made
A decision on whether high-class juvenile Inquisitively will make a trip to the Breeders’ Cup is likely to be made in the coming days, according to his trainer Kevin Philippart De Foy.
The son of Ten Sovereigns was placed on his first two starts for fledgling handler Ollie Sangster, notably finishing third to the Breeders’ Cup-bound Big Evs in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot, but was subsequently sold in the expectation he would continue his racing career in Hong Kong.
However, in an intriguing twist, his new owner instead elected to keep him in Newmarket for the rest of the season and he is now two from two since joining his Belgian-born trainer – impressing in the Listed Roses Stakes at York in August and the Group Three Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket last week.
Philippart De Foy is now considering whether to send the exciting colt to California for a potential rematch with Big Evs in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint on November 3.
He said: “He has come out of his race the other day very well and we are considering whether to go to the Breeders’ Cup or put him away for next year.
“We will see how the horse is, discuss it with the owner and make a plan. I would say the decision will be made over the next few days.”
Whether Inquisitively makes the trip to America or not, his trainer is hopeful he will at least begin his three-year-old campaign in Britain next term.
He added: “I think he will be with us for the first part of next season, (but) there is a question mark over whether he will be with us this time next year.”
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