Arizona Blaze could take direct route to Breeders’ Cup

Adrian Murray is contemplating heading straight to the Breeders’ Cup with Group One hero Arizona Blaze after his brilliant victory in the Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh.

The three-year-old’s consistency this season was rewarded when he bounced back from a below-par display in the Nunthorpe at York to secure top honours for the first time.

It was Arizona Blaze’s fourth success at the Kildare track and although holding an entry for the Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp early next month, his team are now thinking it could be beneficial to head straight to Del Mar where he will attempt to go one better than last year’s second in California.

“Most probably it will be the Breeders’ Cup next,” said Murray. “We have thought about going to France on Arc day for the Abbaye and it’s still up in the air at the minute, but I would say he might just go to the Breeders’ Cup nice and fresh.

“He ran well at Del Mar last year, he handled the track and the ground perfectly and if he could go one better this time, that would be great.

“He’s bouncing after the race and I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s a very good horse and he ran a blinder and win or lose he always shows up, he’s having a great year.

“It was brilliant to get the Group One into him and I’m delighted for the horse more than anything as he had done everything barring that and was very unlucky at Royal Ascot when second in the Commonwealth Cup – he would have thought he had won that day with the winner on the far side.”

Bucanero Fuerte is now a stalwart for Murray and owners Amo Racing’s operation and was not far behind stablemate Arizona Blaze when third in the Flying Five.

He is another on course for an end-of-season trip to America, however, with Arizona Blaze the ace in the Rathowen handler’s pack for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, the Group One-winning son of Wootton Bassett could be ambitiously upped in trip for a crack at the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“He will go to the Breeders’ Cup – he might go straight there – and we’re thinking of running him in the mile,” said Murray.

“Sprinters have gone out there before and won over the mile and it’s a flat track and we’ll see, it’s the way we are thinking at the moment.

“The five furlongs the other day might just have been a bit sharp for him and he’d be a better horse over six furlongs than five. But it’s a fast, flat track there in California and it might just suit him, it’s been done before so we might just go that route.”