Thursday, 10 November, 2022
Owen Burrows on Saturday put the finishing touches to Alflaila’s preparation for this month’s Group 3 Bahrain International Trophy.
The trainer has won £946,644 in British prize-money this season, which towers over his previous best of £603,394, but overseas wins for Hukum and Anmaat have added more than £200,000 to the pot.
In Alflaila, he has a leading contender for the £600,000 Group 3 on November 18. The two-time Group 3 winner cantered on Friday and worked on Saturday, and is set to leave the yard for Luxembourg at 4am on Wednesday before a flight to Bahrain on Thursday.
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“It would be great to finish on a high,” said Burrows, who won the Coronation Cup and Sprint Cup with Hukum and Minzaal this year.
“It’s a £600,000 race with £360,000 to the winner, which isn’t that far off what Hukum and Minzaal won when they won their Group 1s.
“He’d be one of the favourites and I’m not overly concerned about the travel. The form of his win in the Darley Stakes at Newmarket has been boosted with runner-up Ottoman Fleet winning.
“I’m aware he won at Ascot in early May, so he’s been on the go a while, but he can have an easy time when he gets back, although if he won we could think about the Group 1 Jebel Hatta in Dubai.”
Alflaila, who runs in the Shadwell colours and will be ridden by Jim Crowley, has belied his speedy pedigree to a degree and Burrows added: “It’s a mile and a quarter in Bahrain, but that should suit him on his run style. He was good enough to win first time out as a two-year-old over six furlongs. If anything though, this trip will help.
“He’s got into the habit of missing the break, but Jim says that suits him – he was quite keen in the spring in his work and Dane O’Neill, who had been riding him, said we might even think about looking for a race over six furlongs!”
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Burrows began as a private trainer for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, but will operate in a non-salaried capacity from January.
He looks back with pride on a productive campaign, in which Anmaat also starred by winning the John Smith’s Cup and a Group 2 at Longchamp on Arc weekend.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better year,” said the former jump jockey. “It would have been nice for the Group 1 winners to stay sound so we could have run them again, but the plan is for Alflaila and Anmaat to stay in training next year and there’s Hukum too, while Tarjeeh and Lajooje were nice two-year-old winners for Sheikh Ahmed [Al Maktoum].
“Touch wood, there are no complications with Hukum and it’s lovely to have him back after his injury in the Coronation Cup. He’s just doing one canter a day and there are no immediate plans, but you could look at the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.”
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