Condon eyes major targets for Laws Of Indices Ken Condon is targeting an assault on three big prizes for his Irish EBF Auction Series graduate Laws Of Indices, following the Osborne Lodge colt’s elevation to elite status after his stunning Group One Prix Jean Prat triumph at Deauville last Sunday. A return to the picturesque seaside venue Laws Of Indices clearly relishes is likely to be in the offing first, to tackle the older horses in the Prix Maurice de Gheest next month, with the focus then lying on the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp in October and thereafter, a potential tilt at the Breeders’ Cup Mile in Del Mar at the beginning of November. “The Maurice de Gheest is on August 8,” said Condon in the Irish EBF Auction Series Shout Out. “It’s four weeks between both races. We’ll see how he is in the next ten days but that’s where he could go next. “Longer term, I’d say the Prix de la Foret on Arc weekend is the main target. I think seven furlongs is his optimum trip. If he does go to the Maurice de Gheest, I could see him having a little break and waiting for that race on Arc day. He’d have all the credentials you’d need to run in a Breeders’ Cup Mile as well so that could also be the possibility but I’m sure the Foret is the prime target now. “The owners are very brave. Their ambition has been rewarded. He’s run in quite a few Group Ones and you don’t do that unnecessarily and I think everything conspired on Sunday to give him his perfect set-up. “He’s a horse that always turns up. He never lets you down. He looks to be very ground versatile but he wouldn’t have been in love with those very deep conditions (in Ascot and Longchamp last year) and he got probably his perfect set-up the other day; and he got a masterclass from Olivier Peslier from the front. The stars aligned and it was brilliant, fantastic. “We’re all thrilled. It’s so hard to win these Group Ones. Even to have a horse to take part, it’s a wonderful story. For the owners, it’s dream stuff really. They’re five friends, they spent €8,000, you win a Railway Stakes, you run in Royal Ascot and you win a Group 1 in France… They don’t know what they cost. A great story all round.” It is a remarkable playlist Condon reels off for Laws Of Indices and one that advertises the calibre of horse available in the middle-to-lower scale of the sales market. Nothing has illustrated the quality available at a relatively cheap price quite like the Irish EBF Auction Series, which is a staple of the two-year-old programme since its establishment in 2015. Races are confined to EBF-eligible horses purchased at public auction for €72,000 or less, with weight allowances for horses purchased at lower prices. This year’s total prize money is €699,000 through 24 qualifying races over a range of distances from April, with a €120,000 final and an alternative nursery final worth €30,000 in Naas in October. Condon has won €176,350 since the commencement of the series, with 33 of his 57 runners finishing in the money. He has already been on the mark this term, with €5,500 purchase Harmony Rose landing €14,400 when scoring in the Cork Irish EBF Auction Series Maiden in May and since going on to be placed in Listed company. Laws Of Indices and Group 2 winner (and twice Group One-placed) Miss Amulet landed €30,000 between them just from winning Irish EBF Auction Series Maidens at Navan and Cork last year, bought for just €8,000 and €8,325 respectively. The former has accumulated in excess of €350,000 in total prize money, the latter more than €200,000.
