Juvenile Watch: Ross Millar's 25-1 ante-post bet for Royal Ascot

Wathnan Racing are relative newcomers as owners in British racing, but seem intent on growing at a rapid rate, with a seemingly ambitious purchasing policy in place.

They paid £220,000 for

Electrolyte

at the Goffs UK Breeze-up sale in April, and after the youngster made a winning debut at Ayr on Monday, it looks like money well spent, and he’s this week's star performer.

The Archie Watson-trained son of Hello Youmzain broke smartly from stall one and in a small-runner field, he had no difficulty in tacking over to the stand-side rail and relaxed beautifully at the head of affairs. 

James Doyle set a very even pace and when asked for his effor, Electrolyte quickened up well in the manner of a colt who knew his job, as you would expect from his trainer, and indeed the breeze-up sphere.

He didn’t need to be hard ridden to draw a way inside the final furlong. It was a small field but, prior to the race, I believed my selection, Haazeez, set a decent standard and he did improve on his debut fifth from Newbury. However, he had no answer to what was simply a pacier colt over this trip.

Electrolyte’s dam, Bibury, was a modest 72-rated performer with one win to her name. She stayed a mile and among the two winning offspring she had produced prior to Electrolyte is Calderon, a winner of the Group Three Earl Of Sefton Stakes over nine furlongs for Richard Hannon. 

He's by Lope De Vega and, given Electrolyte has a more speed-centred pedigree, I’d be surprised if he stayed that far, but he saw six furlongs out well, so seven furlongs might well be in range. 

In the more immediate future, I would be surprised if connections don’t give serious consideration to the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. He looked an assured and mature individual which suggests he’s got a good chance of handling the preliminaries, and his trainer is no stranger to Royal Ascot success. 

The general 25-1 that is widely available is too big, and he’s therefore become my first Royal Ascot ante-post bet.

Trainer: George Boughey.

This daughter of Hello Youmzain made her debut at Ripon last week. She broke smartly and got the plum position on the near-side rail, and I was surprised to see her so readily concede this position as she dropped to third. 

She travelled sweetly but when asked to quicken, she showed plenty of greenness, which I think was down to the combination of having no space to run into, and also not handling the undulations of the track. 

Inside the final furlong, the two ahead of her drifted apart and she duly quickened well through the gap, though the cosy winner had already flown.

She will have learnt plenty from this outing and should have little trouble landing a similar contest on her next start, particularly on a flatter track.

Hello Youmzain was a thoroughly consistent performer on the track when trained by Kevin Ryan. In a short career of just twelve starts, he recorded five wins which included four Group victories, the highlights being his blitzing win at Royal Ascot in 2020 when he made all in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, as well as his win in the Sprint Cup.

He was retired to stand at Haras d’Etreham at the end of the 2020 season and the early signs from his first crop are that he has every chance of being an even bigger success at stud than he was on the track.

From just ten runners, he has already delivered four winners, and he has plenty of ammunition yet to be played given he covered a strong book of 140 mares in his first year at stud.

He’s certainly a sire whose runners deserve a second look, starting with Veydari in the 2.35pm at Haydock on Thursday. 

Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock is the man responsible for the recruitment of horsepower for owners Wathnan Racing. He has already found success from the breeze-up sales when recruiting debut winner Electrolyte and could well repeat the trick here with this £200,000 Tattersalls purchase. 

Trainer has his juvenile team in good order, operating at a 24 per cent strike-rate and retained-rider James Doyle has really found form in the past fortnight, with seven winners from just 32 rides.

This is always a competitive affair with plenty of operators who are renowned for their two-year olds, such as Karl Burke and Richard Fahey, as well as owner Nick Bradley, and the all hold a number of entries. 

Their presence might mean

Maw Lam

might go off a bigger price than she should be. She finished strongly to make a winning debut at Thirsk last month to win a shade cosily, having been slowly away. 

Trainer Adrian Nicholls doesn’t operate a large team but is more than capable when given the material. Maw Lam might well surprise some high profile rivals here.