Juvenile Watch: Ardad gets off to a flyer and Forca Brasil impresses at Newmarket

Welcome to the first edition of Juvenile Watch. Each week, I’ll be reviewing and previewing all aspects concerning this season’s two-year-olds.

Along the way, I’ll try to spot some likely Royal Ascot prospects among the Class Of 2021 and then, later in the year, start to note those that might make into Classic contenders in 2022.

It’s very early days to be making any serious judgements regarding the first season sires, but I’m sure Simon Sweeting and his team at Overbury Stud in Gloucestershire will be delighted with the start Ardad has made. From his first four runners he’s had two winners and two placed.

The most impressive of these was undoubtedly Arboy Will, who won at Windsor on Monday. He broke smartly, which allowed him to get to the rail, and ran on strongly to be a convincing winner from two Richard Hannon-trained rivals.

Some might look to crab the performance given his odds of 150-1 but I think this was no fluke and he’s certainly one to follow.

Hats off to his 79-year-old trainer John Bridger, who had never before had a two-year-old win on debut in his 54 years with a licence.

Ardad has two more representatives on Wednesday in the form of Beautiful Sunshine and Vintage Clarets.

The former runs in the 1.15 at Newmarket for the in-form George Boughey and Rossa Ryan partnership. She’s out of a fast French mare who won over five furlongs as a two-year-old. Vintage Clarets was fourth in the Brocklesby, when starting favourite.

Forca Brasil was well backed on the morning of the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster last month, before being denied a run on veterinary grounds.

His trainer, George Boughey, was noticeably frustrated by this, which certainly suggested that they considered him a smart sort.

Connections gained some compensation when he was a ready winner of the Novice Stakes on the opening day of Newmarket’s Craven Meeting on Tuesday.

Forca Brasil was by some way the most professional of all the runners. He travelled nicely, handled the Newmarket dip with ease and then quickened up well when asked, to my eye winning a shade cosily. Boughey mentioned the National Stakes, at Sandown, and Norfolk Stakes afterwards and he’s a youngster I will be keen to follow.

Love De Vega certainly hasn’t got the pedigree of a conventional early two-year-old, being by Lope De Vega – who himself didn’t debut until August – out of Ribble, who only made one racecourse appearance over a mile and is herself by a Derby winner in Motivator.

However, his debut at Newmarket on Tuesday (watch above) was most promising. He showed a surprising amount of early speed before sticking to his task and finishing a most creditable second behind the aforementioned impressive Forca Brasil.

I would expect him to improve as he steps up in trip throughout the summer. His trainer, Mark Johnston thrives with tough, resilient horses and I fully expect Love De Vega to win plenty of races over the months ahead.

Zoltan Star (Richard Hannon)

This son of Kodiac, a top sire of two-year-olds, finished second on his debut at Windsor on Monday. He took a while to respond when asked for his finishing effort by Sean Levey but had got the message by the finish. With this experience under his belt I’d expect him to win next time granted similar conditions.

Antiphon (Andrew Balding)

Another son of Kodiac, he was slowly into his stride at Newmarket and didn’t handle the dip very well before finishing well in the last half furlong to finish to be an eye-catching third. He would be interesting on a flatter track next time.

Ebro River (Hugo Palmer)

A son of Galileo Gold (also trained by Hugo Palmer) he looked noticeably green in the early stages of his run at Newmarket on Tuesday. He got the hang of things late on, only to be hampered. I’d be very interested in him when he tackles six furlongs.

In this section, I will hopefully focus on trainers who are in a rich vein of form with their juveniles.

This week, given the relatively small sample size, I thought I’d focus on a comment from a trainer that I considered noteworthy.

Before racing at Newmarket, in an interview with Nick Luck, Andrew Balding commented that he was very happy with the health of his string and was finding that this year his two-year-olds had in general scoped far better than previous years.

Two-year-olds are notoriously fragile to train, so given he feels his recruits are in good health they are well worth monitoring over the coming weeks.

Two noticeable Balding entries are Nymphadora, a 185,000gns purchase who runs at Newmarket on Wednesday (1.15), plus Berkshire Shadow, a son of Dark Angel declared to run at Newbury on Friday.