Finding a Classic contender may be very patient, but You Got To Me is headed to Epsom, giving co-owners Valmont a lot to cheer about as their well-thought-out investment starts to pay off.
The daughter of Nathaniel, owned in association with Newsells Park Stud, made her Betfred Oaks debut last weekend when she easily defeated Hector Crouch in Lingfield's Oaks Trial. She is trained by Ralph Beckett.
After a brilliant ride from Crouch, Epsom's victory was cut to as short as 10-1. Her owners may now start to picture their go-to pilot replicating that Lingfield victory in another rolling area of Surrey later this month.
“She was a filly we always liked last year, but with her physique and her pedigree, she was always going to make a better three-year-old when she stepped up in trip,” explained Alex Elliott, racing adviser for the owners. “She did it the hard way and didn’t make it easy for herself in the first part of the race, but hopefully the freshness will have left her now and we can ride a bit more of a race on her at Epsom and we’re looking forward to that. Hector rides the majority of ours and knows them well. He didn’t get into a fight with her and knows her well from home and I thought he was very good with her. Our programme is to buy more of a three-year-old type so it takes a bit of patience and foresight, but these are the races we want to be tackling and hopefully, we’re assembling a nice team of horses to do that.”
The Valmont team, who have been regulars at the main sales for a few seasons, is no stranger to the winner's enclosure but they are finally building a team of horses that have the potential to make their white, pink and blue silks a regular feature in some of the Flat season's biggest races.
Salt Bay and Ngiri, both four years old, have shown to be exceptional performers for their owners in the past and are still practising at a high level.
However, You Got To Me now offers them their first genuine Classic contender, and later in the season, runners like Feigning Madness, Moon Over Miami, and Valvano may all have hopes of winning major races.
Valvano last appeared at Kempton, when he finished second behind 2000 Guineas hero Notable Speech. However, a setback forced him to postpone his own Classic goals. His connections still hold great expectations for the well-entered son of Night Of Thunder, therefore he is currently working his way back to race fitness.