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| Sumita Pawar |
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Courage Mon Ami and Gregory, both owned by Wathnan Racing, are aiming to repeat their success from last year's Royal Ascot. Courage Mon Ami, the defending champion, and St Leger third Gregory are both being prepared for the Ascot Gold Cup, with the Wathnan Racing team hoping for another round of victories.
Last year, the duo trained by John and Thady Gosden, helped Wathnan Racing kick off their ownership enterprise in style. Gregory won the Queen's Vase while Courage Mon Ami claimed Thursday's feature, both with Frankie Dettori as their jockey. Gregory also went on to place at Doncaster in the final Classic of the season.
This year, both horses are being trained in the staying division and are being kept apart before their joint-target at the royal meeting. They both hold entries for the Boodles Yorkshire Cup on 17th May, and 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, confirmed that both horses are well and gearing up for the Ascot Gold Cup.
“John and Thady are still to decide who is going where and where either of them is going to go.
“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.”
Isaac Shelby, one of Wathnan Racing's first successful horses, has unfortunately retired after suffering an injury during the Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the end of the previous season.
The son of Night of Thunder was a consistent performer trained by Brian Meehan. Wathnan Racing purchased him after he won the Greenham Stakes as a 3YO. He was very close to winning the Poule d'Essai des Poulains in his first race for the team, missing out on Classic honors by just a whisker.
“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.