ten sovereigns x lovelocks

I travelled to Ireland on 13th March to look at ten fillies who were being trained for the breeze ups in 2024. Sam James accompanied me and we headed to the yard of Micky Cleere first, who this week last year sold Big Evs privately. Big Evs went on to win at the Breeders Cup in 2023.

Micky had three pairs of fillies for us to see. Each pair warmed up on the round gallop, each time Sam rode the most forward filly and Micky Cleere rode it's work partner. I watched each pair work and timed them over an uphill gallop of around 350metres.

After the three pairs had worked, Sam and I discussed each pair in turn and both felt that the nicest filly we saw come up was an Ardad filly that is currently catalogued to sell at the Goffs Breeze Ups at Doncaster.

I spoke with Eddie Linehan around 3 weeks ago and he identified three fillies that he felt were well above average from his 2024 2yo cohort. We met Eddie at Mocklershill which as the name suggests is a hill gallop, probably a bit longer than the initial gallop, around 400metres. Again the horses worked in pairs and warmed up on the round gallop before heading up the hill. 

Only two of Eddie's above average fillies were able to work as one was suffering from a snotty nose.  Eddie quoted me prices on two of the three fillies in late February and the one which he liked the most was the Ten Sovereigns X Lovelocks.

We saw two pairs work, the first was the aforementioned Ten Sovereigns filly who worked with a Blue Point filly who is catalogued to sell at the Craven Sale at Newmarket in around 4 weeks. Sam rode the Ten Sovereigns filly whilst I watched from 3/4 up the gallop. Our filly joined the Blue Point filly and then pulled clear of her work partner to win the gallop by around 3 lengths, without being asked. 

The second pair to gallop saw Sam sit on an Arizona filly who again won the gallop but this time by a smaller margin. 

Sam reported after both pieces of work that the nicest horse he sat on during the entire day was the Ten Sovereigns filly. I informed him that she came up 0.3 seconds quicker over the final 200m and he felt that she did that very easily in second gear and he didn't ask her to extend. Whereas, Sam didn't like the Arizona filly and reported that he scrubbed her along throughout the breeze.

Sam has been riding out at Kevin Ryan's, Karl Burke's and Grant Tuer's in 2024 and sitting on plenty of 2yos including plenty of ours. He felt that this filly gave him the best feel of all the fillies he has sat on to date in 2024.  

By buying the filly privately rather than through the breeze ups, I was able to get Sam James to sit on her which gave us information we wouldn't have had had she gone straight to the breeze ups.  I have also been able to have her vetted. She had her knees X rayed, had a physical examination and scoped prior to purchase. She is the third 2yo I have vetted to date and the first to pass the veterinary inspection. I also feel that the very best 2yos tend to sell for a premium price at the sales and that is what I hope I have acquired here but without the premium price.

Physique

Physically this filly is a very nice filly. She looks like a horse for the second half of the season standing around 15'3. She reminds me alot of Cachet when she was at the yearling sales and I would expect her to be a 7-8 furlong horse given physique. She is out of a High Chaparral mare and looked exactly as I would expect her to look.

Pedigree

https://secure.tattersalls.ie/cat/sept/2023/271.pdf

Looking at her pedigree, she is a half sister to the 2023 2yo Nellie Laylax who won on debut in eyecatching fashion at Beverley in a hot race and was subject to an offer of £300,000 following its debut performance. It went on to win at Doncaster and Haydock later in the season and was a filly I tracked through the season. I remember Tom Dascombe telling me that it was a much better filly on soft ground which is how its season panned out. It reached a season high rating of 89 and picked up over £57,000 in prize money. It wouldn't surprise me if this filly was at her best on softer ground aswell.

I have learned over the years that mares tend to produce their best progeny in consecutive years and that could be the case with this mare.

Ten Sovereigns seems to be a stallion that is somewhat underrated following his first crop of 2yo runners. He had 9 blacktype horses in his first crop in 2024 from 78 runners which included 3 Stakes winners.

Racing Plans

This filly being bought privately gives us a huge advantage in terms of race planning. Her yearling price of 25,000 Euros qualifies her for band C races, which seems to be the most popular Restricted races put on by the race planners. That means she can qualify to run in the valuable Restricted races shown below. Had she been bought publicly for a price above £60,000 she would be banded in group A and her racing options would be far more limited.

The races shown below are potential targets for the filly:

17th April Newmkt Maiden Fillies 25k 5f

27th April Leicester BCD 30k 5f

5th May Newmkt Novice Fillies 40k 5f

10th May Ascot BCD Maiden FIllies 40k 

Trainer

I could have sent this filly to various trainers but I was keen to support Grant Tuer as we had a great season with Grant in 2023. Grant wouldn't be the most fashionable trainer in the country, but he is a straight talker, happy to run his horses and is very easy to deal with.

Grant has taken a significant share in the filly himself based on the confidence he has heard from Sam and myself. I hope this filly can be a star for Grant and ourselves in 2024 and Grant is very excited to receive her.