In-Form Murray Outlines Plans for Stable Stars

[Wandering Eyes]

With six winners from 13 runners in the past fortnight, few stables are in better form at present than that of Adrian Murray, who now has his sights set on biggers targets in the coming weeks with three of those winners, including last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Arizona Blaze (GB).

The son of Sergei Prokofiev kicked off his three-year-old season in the best possible fashion at Dundalk last Friday, when giving weight and a comprehensive beating to his five rivals in the Horse Racing Every Friday Until 11th April Race. At the line he was four and a half lengths clear of his closest pursuer, having made every yard of the running in the hands of David Egan.

Arizona Blaze is yet to race beyond six furlongs, but Murray is now considering a step up in distance with the Amo Racing and Giselle De Aguiar-owned colt, who also won the G3 Marble Hill Stakes and finished third in the G1 Phoenix Stakes, both at the Curragh, in a nine-race juvenile campaign.

“He was very impressive and did it very well,” the County Westmeath trainer said of Arizona Blaze's Dundalk win. “He's a class horse and proved he's trained on. I think there will be plenty of improvement in him, too.

“I think he'll go for a Guineas trial next. We're not sure if he'll stay seven furlongs or a mile as he as an awful lot of speed, but we're going to give it a go and try him over seven furlongs in one of the trials. That will hopefully tell us a lot about what the campaign will be for him over the summer.”

Another recent Dundalk winner for whom Murray has big plans is Titanium Emperor (Ire), who ran to a high level for a newcomer when beating stable-mate Spicy Margarita (Ire) (Earthlight {Ire}) by three lengths to win the William Hill Top Price Guarantee Patton Race earlier this month.

Back in third on that occasion was the Aidan O'Brien-trained Mount Kilimanjaro (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), making his first appearance since filling the runner-up spot in the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud in October. It might be dangerous to take too a literal reading of that form, but Titanium Emperor is clearly a colt of significant potential for the Amo team, who went to 220,000gns to secure him at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

“He's a good horse, a very nice horse,” Murray said of the son of Night Of Thunder (Ire), whose siblings include the multiple Group winners My Oberon (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and My Prospero (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}).

“I don't know where we'll go next, but he's hopefully a Royal Ascot horse as well for down the road. We'll try to pick up a race or two before then and see where we get to, but I think he's a very nice horse.

“On that debut performance you would definitely think he is a Group horse and he's cracking. You'd like to think he will be running in some of the nicer races when we get to Ascot.”

Royal Ascot is also a likely destination for Power Blue (Ire) after his victory on the opening day of the Irish Flat season at the Curragh on Sunday, providing his first-season sire, Space Blues (Ire), with a breakthrough winner as he won the Castle Star At Capital Stud Irish EBF Maiden by three and three-quarter lengths.

It was a third consecutive victory in the race for Murray, after those of Bucanero Fuerte (GB) in 2023 and the aforementioned Arizona Blaze last year. Both those horses went on to finish placed at the Royal meeting–Bucanero Fuerte was third in the G2 Coventry Stakes, before Arizona Blaze filled the same position in the G2 Norfolk Stakes–and their trainer is already leaning towards a tilt at the Coventry with his latest winner.

“He's a very nice horse and he was probably the most impressive of my three winners in that race,” Murray added. “He just kept on going and David [Egan] said the further he went the better he was.

“The Coventry would be the long-term plan with him, but the horse will tell us between here and then–we're hoping he'll get there. He'll go to the Listed race [First Flier Stakes on Monday, May 5) next.”

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