John Ingles highlights four horses with interesting pedigrees making their debuts this weekend.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY - 13:45 Navan
Aidan O’Brien introduces a couple of colts in this maiden over nearly six furlongs, though both Battle Cry and Battle Fleet are bred to need further than this in due course. On the other hand, Ger Lyons’ newcomer General Assembly has a much speedier profile, being a son of Starspangledbanner who cost 130,000 guineas as a yearling. His dam Black Rodded was a two-year-old sprint winner at Bath for Hughie Morrison and a sister to Queen’s Grace, a six-furlong listed winner at two for the same stable. Their dam Palace Affair was a smart sprinter and a half-sister to July Cup winner Sakhee’s Secret. General Assembly is a half-brother to three winners himself, including Louis Treize, another in the family to win over six furlongs at two.
OCEAN RUNNER - 15:10 Ascot
First-season sire Blue Point has got off to a good start with five winners on the board already, including Valour And Swagger who lines up in the novice at Ascot on Saturday, a track where Blue Point had so much success himself. However, among his rivals are two newcomers by the same sire, South Shore for Simon & Ed Crisford and Ocean Runner for Charlie Appleby. The latter colt has made headlines already as, on the back of his sire’s early successes, he fetched 625,000 guineas when the joint-top lot at last month’s Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale. His useful dam Most Beautiful won twice over six furlongs at two in Ireland, including a Group 3 at the Curragh, and is also the dam of Ludo’s Landing, a nursery winner at Carlisle last season.
CITY OF CHICAGO - 17:10 Navan
Joseph O’Brien’s Irish Derby entry Valiant King boasts the best form in Navan’s mile and a quarter maiden but his father’s City of Chicago looks the pedigree pick among the newcomers. He’s by US Triple Crown winner Justify out of My Sister Sandy, she too a winner in America and a sister to the dam of Stopchargingmaria, a very smart mare on dirt who won a hatful of graded stakes, notably the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 2015. My Sister Sandy has already produced a good winner on turf for Ballydoyle in the smart colt Van Beethoven who was by Justify’s sire Scat Daddy. He won twice over six furlongs at two, including the Railway Stakes at the Curragh, and the following season was runner-up over a mile in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington.
GOLDEN MIND - 15:45 Hamilton (Sunday)
Richard Fahey enjoyed a fine couple of seasons with the smart colt Perfect Power, a winner at successive Royal Ascots in the Norfolk Stakes and Commonwealth Cup and also winner of the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes at two. Perfect Power got off the mark at the second attempt in a maiden at Hamilton and his two-year-old half-brother Golden Mind, by 2000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold, bids to make a winning debut for the same stable at the Scottish track on Sunday. Like Perfect Power, Golden Mind runs in the colours of Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum, having been bought for 150,000 guineas as a yearling.
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