Lezoo team dreaming of next year

Cheveley Park winner has only been beaten once.

Ralph Beckett’s star two-year-old filly Lezoo is finished for the season, with connections dreaming of what she can achieve on her return to the track in 2023.

A winner of four of her five starts this campaign, her sole defeat came when suffering interference and ultimately finishing second to Mawj, beaten half a length, in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes.

However, having got back to winning ways by landing the Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot, she gained revenge on Mawj and held off Meditate to score in a red-hot renewal of the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket.

In the immediate aftermath of that Group One success at HQ a possible trip to the Breeders’ Cup was tentatively mooted, but the decision was soon made to give Keeneland a miss having already established herself as one of the leading juveniles of 2022.

“Lezoo is absolutely fine. She is on her autumn holidays with Prosperous Voyage out in the field,” said Jamie McCalmont, racing manager to Lezoo’s owner Marc Chan.

“She’s answered every question asked this year and has been very unlucky not to be unbeaten, which is probably the only frustrating thing – but that was out of our hands and definitely out of her hands.

“After she won at Newmarket, there was never really a question of going to the Breeders’ Cup because the horse has given us everything. That would have been one step too far – If you had gone to the Breeders’ Cup and she ran down the field, you would hate yourself for doing it to her.”

Now attentions turn to 2023 where Lezoo will be given an entry for the 1000 Guineas, but it is envisaged she will be campaigning over the sprinting distances at which she has thrived this season.

“The idea will be to keep her at sprint distances next season, but you know, horses change over the winter, she will be entered in the English Guineas, but it would be a long shot at this time.

“If Ralph thought that was the thing to do when the time came around then that would be fine, but when you have got a horse that in theory is unbeaten, you don’t want to run in races where you could disappoint an animal. Marc Chan’s number one is the horse comes first and we have to do what is best for the horse.”

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