Sunday’s Bar One Flying Five Offered Automatic Starting Positions into the Breeders’ Cup World Championships
Breeders’ Cup Release
THE CURRAGH, Ireland ― Victorious Racing’s Bradsell (GB) put in a class performance Sunday to deny Highclere Racing’s Believing (IRE), in the Bar One Flying Five Stakes (G1 at The Curragh, securing back-to-back Group 1 victories. The 4-year-old son of Tasleet (GB) already qualified for the $1 million Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) via the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In through a victory in the Aug. 23 Coolmore Wooton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes (G1).
Lake Victoria (IRE), winner of the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1), the second Win and You’re In race on day two of the Irish Champions Festival, earned an automatic position into the $1 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf (G1).
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 82 Graded/Group stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, California.
Bradsell, trained by Archie Watson, has won three in a row after returning from an 11-month hiatus. In Sunday’s €400,000 showpiece, he broke smartly under Hollie Doyle and gained a nice lead over Hambleton Racing’s Washington Heights (GB) in the stands side group. When Doyle gave the signal, he shot clear of his nearest pursuers and put in a scintillating kick to win by 1 1/4 lengths.
George Boughey’s 4-year-old filly Believing (IRE), a Group 2 winner who was second to Bradsell at York, again mounted a challenge and flew home in the closing stages of a thrilling finish to pick up second place.
Brightwalton Bloodstock Ltd.’s 5-year-old mare Makaraova (GB) finished third under Tom Marquand with the Clive Cox-trained Kerdos (IRE), Washington Heights, and Norman Court Stud & Partner’s Desperate Hero (GB) completing a clean sweep for the British sprinters.
The Flying Five Stakes has been a contest in which British yards have fared well in recent years – Bradsell’s victory taking the winning streak to seven of the last 11 renewals.
Doyle said: “He’s quick! It was an easy five [furlongs] at York but he’s just proven how good he is and it wasn’t a one-off.
“We’ve run here twice before and haven’t had the luck of the draw, but he’s never been in better form, he’s improved with age and got stronger and quicker. This is his third Group 1 – the King’s Stand, Nunthorpe, and now a Flying Five winner.
“These sprinters do improve with age and he’s in a really good place mentally. He could go to the Abbaye or the Breeders’ Cup.”
Bradsell covered 5 furlongs in 0:57:25 over a course listed as good.
