As the Wathnan Racing team looks to replicate its incredible performance at Royal Ascot last year, leading contender Courage Mon Ami and third-place finisher Gregory have set their sights on the Ascot Gold Cup.
The pair, trained by John and Thady Gosden, gave the Qatar-based operation the ideal beginning to their ownership venture, with Gregory scooping the Queen’s Vase and Courage Mon Ami claiming Thursday’s feature, both in the hands of Frankie Dettori.
After finishing second at Doncaster in the season's last Classic, Gregory is now scheduled to race alongside his stablemate in the staying division this year. Their connections are eager to keep them apart prior to their shared goal of winning the royal meeting.
Both have entries in the Boodles Yorkshire Cup on May 17 and a week later, Sandown's Henry II Stakes presents another chance for the pair to tune up for their primary summer assignment.
“Both are well and pointing towards the Ascot Gold Cup and obviously there are a few races they can run in before then,” stated Richard Brown. “John and Thady are still to decide who is going where and where either of them is going to go. There are only a couple of options and at the moment we’re slightly nervous about the ground. It may be that they both have to run in the same race, but we hope that is not the case. There is obviously York and Sandown and both races feed nicely into Ascot.”
The reliable operator trained by Brian Meehan, was purchased by Wathnan following his victory in the Greenham Stakes at the age of three. On his debut race wearing their colours, he came dangerously close to taking home Classic honours in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains.
“We’ve retired Isaac Shelby and he suffered an injury in France when he ran on Arc day,” continued Brown. “He’s back sound but there was a risk with going back and racing him and considering he nearly gave Wathnan a dream start in Paris, there was absolutely no chance they were going to risk the horse, so they have retired him. A plan hasn’t been made for him, but he’s in Newmarket and we’re just letting him down and we will figure things out for him in the coming months.”