All eyes on Acapulco
THE strapping Wesley Ward-trained American filly Acapulco, who was highly impressive when winning the Gr 2 Queen Mary Stakes over five furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting in just her second career start, will attempt to become the third two-year-old in the last 25 years to win the Gr 1 weight for age Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes over five furlongs at York tomorrow and has been priced up as the 6/4 favourite with William Hill.
Legendary South African jockey Michael Roberts won the race on the two-year-old Richard Hannon-trained filly Lyric Fantasy in 1992.
Roberts recalled, “She was only two bricks and a tickey high, she was so small I could actually sit in the saddle and touch her ears, but she was very quick and I just sat off the pace and let them cut throats in front. I remember the owner Lord Carnarvon, who was the Queen's racing manager, telling me that he had always told Sir Gordon Richards that no rider was allowed to ride any of his horses more than one pound overweight.
I said ‘Thank you Sir’ but still had to do a lot of wasting to make the weight!"
Roberts eventually did indeed ride the horse one pound overweight the carded 7 stone 7 pounds (about 47,5kg).
Due to the weight for age scale, which has only undergone minor alterations since formulated by Admiral Henry John Rous in 1860, Acapulco as a two-year-old filly will also be receiving a massive 27 pounds from older males, 25 pounds from three-yearold males and 24 pounds from the older females. However, as the weights are set higher across the board these days she will have to carry 7 stone 12 pounds (about 50kg).
The USA-bred Acapulco is by Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), who was the USA champion first season sire in 2011. Fittingly Scat Daddy is a Coolmore-owned sire and Acapulco is owned by the Coolmore partners Derrick Smith, John Magnier and Michael Tabor. Acapulco, unlike Lyric Fantasy, is an imposing “monster’’ who looks more like a four-year-old. However, she has tremendous speed and dominated the Queen Mary in the same way Lyric Fantasy did 23 years earlier to win impressively by 1,5 lengths (Lyric Fantasy won it by five).
Acapulco only ran once in the USA before flying over for the Queen Mary and she could only manage a 7,75 length third over 4,5 furlongs at Churchill Downs, but clearly needed it as she was rushed into the lead before fading. The defeat didn’t stop her from starting 5/2 favourite in the 20 horse field in the Queen Mary and duly converting those odds under the brilliant Ryan Moore. Ward took Acapulco back to the USA after Royal Ascot and she has been flown back in for the Nunthorpe. He had hoped Hall Of Fame jockey John Velazquez would take the ride, but he was unavail- able, so another top class lightweight rider, the up and coming Puerto Rican 23-year-old youngster Irad Ortiz, has reportedly been engaged although he is yet to be declared.
Ward was lyrical about Acapulco’s preparation and said, “Her coat is in amazing condition. She looks like a leopard, all dappled out and with spots everywhere. She is still doing some sensational breezes, just as she was before Ascot. She is doing everything right. I’m so excited. This would trump everything else I've achieved in racing, even at Ascot. To race a two-year-old against older horses is something that would never be contemplated in the States. People don’t believe it’s possible when I tell them what we're planning. I’ve never felt I’ve had the right horse to do it in the past. This time I do have the right horse.’’
The second favourite for the Nunthorpe at 5/1 with William Hill is the William Haggas-trained Muthmir, who finished a narrow third in the Gr 1 King's Stand Stakes over five furlongs at Royal Ascot before being well beaten in the Gr 1 July Cup over six furlongs at Newmarket and then winning the Gr 2 King George Stakes over five furlongs at Goodwood.
The amazing Edward Lynam-trained five-time Gr 1-winning eight-year-old Sole Power, who won the Nunthorpe at odds of 100/1 as a three-year-old in 2010 and won it again as 11/4 favourite last year, is the third favourite at 6/1.
Muthmir will be ridden by Paul Hanagan and Sole Power, who was fifth in the King's Stand and fourth in the July Cup, will have Frankie Dettori aboard as his regular rider Richard Hughes retired from the saddle after the Glorious Goodwood meeting in order to prepare for his new career as a trainer.
The first two-year-old to win the Nunthorpe was High Treason in 1953 and the last one to do it was Kingsgate Native in 2007. The race is littered with famous names, including “the flying filly’’ Mumtaz Mahal (1924), the great Abernant (1949,1950), Sharpo (who became the second horse to win the race three times (19801982), the filly Habibti (1983) and Dayjur (1990).