Queen Mary winner Quick Suzy © Photo Healy Racing
Quick Suzy is set to to warm up for a trip to the Breeders’ Cup in a Listed event at Dundalk rather than Newmarket’s Cheveley Park Stakes.
Winner of the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, Gavin Cromwell’s filly has since struggled when encountering more testing conditions in the Prix Morny at Deauville — albeit only beaten little more than four lengths.
With the Breeders’ Cup top of the agenda for Quick Suzy’s American owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Legacy Stakes on October 1 is viewed as a more suitable stepping stone to Del Mar than the Group One Cheveley Park on September 25.
Joseph Burke, spokesperson for her owners, said: “Quick Suzy’s main objective this year is the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. That has always been her main target — that’s what she was purchased to do.
“With that in mind, Gavin suggested that we change her prep race and she’s going to go for a five-furlong Listed race ( the Legacy Stakes) at Dundalk on October 1.
“She’s had her three runs in Ireland, then she travelled to England for a run and then she travelled to France.
“Travel is a little bit more difficult than it used to be. If we were to go for the Cheveley Park, she’d go across on the boat and then it’s six hours in a box down to Newmarket, run in a Group One and then six hours back to the boat again before being put on a flight to America a few weeks later. We also don’t know what ground we’ll encounter there, whereas at Dundalk it’s a given.
“We all agreed that on balance, it is the right move with a view to having her peak at Del Mar.”
Burke added: “She’s in really good form and has improved physically over the summer and strengthened up.
“While we fully believe she’s capable of winning a Cheveley Park, we don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture — and if it came down to a choice of winning at Newmarket or winning at the Breeders’ Cup, with all due respect, there’s only one winner for her owners. It’s on their home turf, with the offices of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners being close to the track.
“Gavin and his team will aim to get her to Del Mar in as good a shape as possible — and running at Dundalk, which is just down the road from Gavin’s base, makes a lot of sense.
“It’s a measure of the trainer that Gavin is that he is placing the filly and her owners first by sacrificing his chance to win his first European Group One on the Flat — something that he will do very soon, having already won a Group Two on Arc weekend.
“Instead, he is completely focused on the Breeders’ Cup, and he and his team are doing a fantastic job with her, so we’re very excited about what lies ahead.”
