Met winner Smart Call is to take on some of the best fillies in Europe before leaving for America for the Breeders’ Cup meeting.
Alec Laird said: “She arrived in Newmarket last Wednesday and doesn’t have to do any further quarantine in Britain as the European authorities accepted that what she did in Mauritius was enough. The place she stayed at was half an hour from any other horse.
“She is based at Abington Place (Mary’s Slack’s establishment) and you couldn’t find a better place to train from. We are aiming to run her in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes over a mile at Newmarket on October 1. She will probably need that run – all the quarantine has put us under a bit of pressure.”
The $2 million Filly & Mare Turf over ten furlongs at Santa Anita in California on November 5 is the Breeders’ Cup race for which Smart Call has received the invitation and Laird confirmed that is the one she is being aimed at.
The Mauritzfontein four-year-old, who also won the Maine Chance Paddock Stakes, had a gruelling journey from Mauritius last week, flying via Nairobi to Liege in Belgium. She then travelled to Amsterdam and from there by road – and ferry across the English Channel – to Newmarket.
The Sun Chariot invariably attracts a high class field and has been won by fillies from France and Ireland as well as Britain in recent years.
Michael Clower