Owner’s financial woes offer sobering warning
IT was a sad irony that during Chester’s big meeting of the year that prominent owner Marwan Koukash was formally declared bankrupt.
Koukash, a self-made millionaire, loved racing and loved Chester races most of all, where he had over a thousand runners, 97 of them winners including four Chester Cups.
No father could have been prouder of his son Gabrial, judging by the host of horses with “Gabrial” in their name. He applied for bankruptcy last June – interestingly he was able to have runners until November – but only now has it been formalised.
He was born near the Israel-Jordan border, a disputed war-torn area. The family farm was bombed in the 1960s and he eventually came to this country with very little. He studied hard to obtain a degree, and then a PhD before going into business. He was said to be worth £50 million at one time.
It’s the latest example of the old saying that the quickest way to a small fortune is to start with a big one and get involved in horse racing.
Saturday’s big handicap at Ascot, the Victoria Cup, is a target for seven furlong specialists.
One who fits the bill, has course form and goes on the soft, is Fresh. He runs off a mark he won off in September over course and distance. The James Fanshawe stable is operating at a 23% strike rate this year.
Lingfield’s Classic Trials take place on the all-weather track due to the turf course being waterlogged. They were last run on the artificial surface in 2012.
Godolphin, Ballydoyle and Gosden runners will be prominent in the market but the one that will attract the most interest is Circle Of Fire, owned by the King and Queen and trained by Sir Michael Stoute. This colt ran last weekend in a ten-furlong Listed contest at Newmarket, splitting two Godolphin runners and giving every indication that he needs a mile and a half.
It’s unusual to see a Stoute-trained horse appear so soon after his previous race.
The late Queen Elizabeth’s Aureole won the Derby Trial in 1953, spreadeagling his rivals by five lengths, before finishing second at Epsom. That was the closest Her Majesty ever came to owning a Derby winner. Aureole was one of her best horses, for he went on to win the Ascot Gold Cup the following year and to become a successful sire.
The last horse to take both the Lingfield Derby Trial and the Epsom Derby was Anthony Van Dyck in 2019, but it’s not just the winners of the trials you have to watch out for.
In 2021 it was the runner-up, Adayar, who went on to win the Epsom Derby by four lengths.
He won at Newmarket a week ago and is set to return to the scene of his greatest triumph for the Coronation Cup.
The fourth, Kyprios, was then off the track for almost a year, but when he returned he was unbeaten in all the main stayers’ races including the Ascot Gold Cup.
William Buick has a good record riding for Hughie Morrison and they combine in Lingfield’s 5.15 with Wagga Wagga, on whom Buick won by seven lengths at Pontefract last year.