Whisky Baron up for UK debut

Whisky Baron, winner of the Sun Met in January, will start his overseas campaign in the £100,000 Shadwell Joel Stakes at Newmarket in England on September 29.

Owned by Craig and Ross Kieswetter, the Aussie-bred gelding has one of the rich races in Hong Kong in December as his chief objective.

Craig Kieswetter played cricket for England before being forced to retire after suffering an eye injury in a county match.

The Newmarket race will be a tough call for Brett Crawford’s horse as the race has attracted a big entry, including two runners from Aidan O’Brien’s stable and one of France’s top performers.

O’Brien has entered Cougar Mountain and Rhododendron, while Dicton, placed in the 2016 French Derby, is likely to make the trip from France.

Whisky Baron spent three months in quarantine in Mauritius en route to the UK and Crawford is happy with the gelding’s wellbeing.

He told the Sporting Post: “Everything is on track and he has already given us the journey of a lifetime, but fitness will obviously be an issue for him and he has also never raced up a hill before.”

The race that put Whisky Baron on the map — and made him one of the finalists for the “Horse-of-the-Year” award won by Legal Eagle — was the Sun Met and the sponsors are already gearing up for their 2018 race.

The Sun Met will take place at Kenilworth on January 27.

Rob Collins, group strategy and operations officer at Sun International, said the group was looking forward to “taking the reins” on the event again.

Turffontein hosts its third meeting of the week on Saturday and champion trainer Sean Tarry has booked Piere Strydom to partner his useful filly Myfunnyvalentine in the sixth race.

This R700,000 daughter of Captain Al is the highest meritrated runner in the six-horse field and may have most to fear from Craig Zackey’s mount Sylvan On Fire. This Silvano filly is bidding for a hat-trick, but Shatoosh and Smokey Affair represent powerful stables.

Beautiful Shay came close to a 25-1 upset on her latest appearance, so it is no surprise that trainer Steve Moffatt has again engaged Callan Murray for the ride in Saturday’s seventh race.

Hatfield Square and Spring Indeed could be tough rivals.