Mustashry Heads Stoute Duo In Joel

[Wandering Eyes]

Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire meeting features more selective fayre on Friday when Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Mustashry (GB) (Tamayuz {GB}) helps exert a Sir Michael Stoute stranglehold on the G2 Shadwell Joel S. alongside stablemate Regal Reality (GB) (Intello {Ger}). Successful over seven furlongs in the G2 Park S. at Doncaster Sept. 15, the rock-solid homebred could yet enter the reckoning for the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. which lacks a star at present. “I was very impressed with him at Doncaster,” the sponsors’ racing manager Angus Gold admitted. “He was obviously coming back to seven furlongs that day and looked beaten, but he showed a really good attitude to battle back and win. He’s had a few problems along the way, but he’s doing really well at the moment.”

Regal Reality took Goodwood’s G3 Thoroughbred S. on good-to-firm Aug. 3 and was admirable in defeat when third on heavy in Haydock’s G3 Superior Mile Sept. 8. The Johnson Houghtons’ June 19 G1 Queen Anne S. hero Accidental Agent (GB) (Delegator {GB}) is a welcome attendee after his latest 10th in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville Aug. 12. “This is his prep race for the QEII and we’re very happy with him,” trainer Eve Johnson Houghton said. “I think the ground is pretty irrelevant, to be honest. I believe that a couple of the other runners have made the running in the past–but if they don’t go a great pace, so be it, Accidental Agent did twice win over seven furlongs last autumn. He seems in very good form, but Mustashry looks useful–and giving weight to him will be hard.”

Also on the card is the G2 Shadwell Rockfel S., where Ballydoyle’s ‘TDN Rising Star’ Just Wonderful (Dansili {GB}) stages a quick return having been seventh in The Curragh’s G1 Moyglare Stud S. Sept. 16. That rates as a disappointing effort from the blueblood after she had the subsequent G2 May Hill S. winner Fleeting (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) back in third in the G3 Flame of Tara S. over a mile also in Kildare Sept. 1. Fifth in the Moyglare was Saif Ali’s June 22 G3 Albany S. and Aug. 11 G3 Sweet Solera S. winner Main Edition (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), but she may have been sucked into going off too quick there. Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s Sept. 6 G3 Dick Poole Fillies’ S. scorer Yourtimeisnow (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) moves up from six furlongs, but trainer Roger Varian said he is satisfied she has the requisite stamina. “Yourtimeisnow improved nicely to win the Dick Poole and I was impressed with her attitude in the closing stages,” he said. “I think she will stay the extra furlong no problem and the track ought to suit her. She will need to progress again up in grade, but she’s entitled to.”

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