Wathnan eyeing Gold Cup repeat with star staying duo

All roads lead to Royal Ascot for Courage Mon Ami and Gregory.

The Ascot Gold Cup is the priority for defending champion Courage Mon Ami and St Leger third Gregory as the Wathnan Racing team seek a repeat of last year’s Royal Ascot heroics.

The John and Thady Gosden-trained duo gave the Qatar-based operation the perfect start to their ownership enterprise, with Gregory scooping the Queen’s Vase and Courage Mon Ami claiming Thursday’s feature, both in the hands of Frankie Dettori.

Gregory would go on to place at Doncaster in the final Classic of the season and is now set to join his stablemate in the staying division this term, with connections keen to keep them apart before their joint-target at the royal meeting.

Both hold entries for the Boodles Yorkshire Cup on May 17, while Sandown’s Henry II Stakes a week later is another possible option for the duo to tune up for their main summer assignment.

Richard Brown, racing adviser for the owners, said: “Both are well and pointing towards the Ascot Gold Cup and obviously there are a few races they can run in before then.

“John and Thady are still to decide who is going where and where either of them is going to go.

Royal Ascot 2023 – Day Two – Ascot Racecourse
Gregory ridden by Frankie Dettori (left) winning the Queen’s Vase (John Walton/PA).

“There are only a couple of options and at the moment we’re slightly nervous about the ground. It may be that they both have to run in the same race, but we hope that is not the case.

“There is obviously York and Sandown and both races feed nicely into Ascot.”

Meanwhile, another of Wathnan’s inaugural stars, Isaac Shelby, has run his last race, with the son of Night Of Thunder retired after suffering an injury when second in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the end of last season.

Trained by Brian Meehan, the consistent operator was acquired by Wathnan after claiming the Greenham Stakes on his three-year-old bow and was only a whisker away from Classic honours in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains on his first outing in their colours.

“We’ve retired Isaac Shelby and he suffered an injury in France when he ran on Arc day,” continued Brown.

“He’s back sound but there was risk with going back and racing him and considering he nearly gave Wathnan a dream start in Paris, there was absolutely no chance they were going to risk the horse, so they have retired him.

“A plan hasn’t been made for him, but he’s in Newmarket and we’re just letting him down and we will figure things out for him in the coming months.”

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