Alounak Purchased by King Power, Sent to Balding

[Wandering Eyes]

GSW and GISP Alounak (Fr) (Camelot {GB}), fifth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf in November, has been purchased by King Power Racing and sent to trainer Andrew Balding, Racing Post reported. The G1 Melbourne Cup and G1 Hong Kong Vase are the targets for the former Darius Racing representative, who was trained by Jean-Pierre Carvalho (2017/18) and then Waldemar Hickst this term. Successful in a pair of German listed races in 2017 and 2018, respectively, the bay took the G3 Preis der Sparkassen Finanzgruppe by a head in August and was a half-length second in the GI Pattison Canadian International this October.

“His run at Santa Anita was pretty eyecatching and he performed very well in Canada too, so he certainly seems to be a progressive performer,” said King Power Racing Manager Alastair Donald to Racing Post. “We saw him as a good horse to purchase with races like the Melbourne Cup and Hong Kong Vase next season in mind. He handles fast ground, but he’s decent on soft ground too, so we could have quite a bit of fun with him travelling around the world. We’ll be looking at running him over longer; looking at how he’s bred, it could bring out further improvement. He’s also the sort of horse who could progress with age, so there are a lot of options on the international stage.”

Bred by East Bloodstock Ltd. and SCEA Des Prairies in France, the grandson of the SP Aspiring Diva (Distant View) was a €110,000 Arqana August yearling. His dam, Awe Struck (GB) (Rail Link {GB}) is a half-sister to G1 Matron S. heroine and Irish highweight Emulous (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

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