English 2000 Guineas target for Born To Sea

RACING NEWS:JOHN OXX still plans to train Born To Sea with a tilt at next year's English 2000 Guineas in mind after he was beaten and suffered an injury at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The juvenile is a half-brother to Oxx’s brilliant colt Sea The Stars, who went through his three-year-old career unbeaten.

Born To Sea, who can also count the brilliant Galileo as a sibling, made a winning debut at the Curragh in September and was sent off at odds-on for the JRA Killavullan Stakes at the weekend.

Although Oxx was initially disappointed his charge was beaten by Aidan O’Brien’s Nephrite, connections subsequently found that he had torn a muscle, which appears to have occurred coming out of the stalls.

With that in mind, the trainer feels his charge ran with great credit and he will be trained with Newmarket in mind in the spring.

“That (2000 Guineas) would be the plan, we’re still hoping for it,” said Oxx. “He didn’t get the chance on Sunday to prove himself as we’d have liked and that’s a bit irritating, but we still think he’s done enough that he can be considered for the Guineas and trained for it.

“We’ll just see now how everything goes in the spring and see how he measures up, but Newmarket is the first objective.”

Meanwhile, Paul Nicholls was delighted to see Kauto Star show plenty of enthusiasm as the veteran chaser enjoyed a spin under Ruby Walsh with stablemates Big Buck’s and Mon Parrain after racing at Exeter yesterday.

The 11-year-old Kauto Star has enjoyed a stellar career, winning the King George on four consecutive occasions and taking Cheltenham Gold Cup glory twice. A bid for a fourth victory in the Betfair Chase at Haydock on November 19th is now on his agenda.

“Kauto was full of enthusiasm and travelling like a demon and it’s good for them, a day out like this,” said Nicholls. “I’m really pleased to see Kauto going nicely and the idea was to try and finish in a line together.

“People are saying Kauto should be retired but they have to remember that when he’s retired, people won’t get the chance to see him. He’ll be retired one day but he absolutely adores what he’s doing – he loves being in training.

“We’re not going to abuse him and we won’t ask him to do anything he’s not capable of. He’ll have a couple of runs, it will the same for him and Denman, and we’ll see what happens.”