Juvenile Watch: four exciting unraced two-year-olds to note

This made for quite an easy choice this week. 

Make Haste, a daughter of last year's leading first-season sire Blue Point, made an exceptionally impressive debut at Naas on Saturday.

Her jockey, Gavin Ryan, was clearly keen to take a lead through the early stages, but his free-going partner perhaps had other ideas and took a fairly strong hold through the first couple of furlongs. She easily moved closer approaching the two-furlong pole and then quickened up in the manner of a talented filly to sprint clear in the final furlong. Given she raced inefficiently in the early stages, it’s a positive sign that she was able to find so much towards the line and certainly merits this performance being upgraded.

Her Brazilian trainer, Diego Dias, has a background in the breeze-up sphere and that showed given Make Haste delivered her acceleration instantly and ran straight and true to the line. On that front, then, she might not be open to as much progress as some other debutants, but she was physically impressive however. I would defy anyone to pull her out as a filly in a race containing a number of colts, while mentally she certainly has scope to progress if learning to settle better.

Immediately after the race her trainer nominated the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot as a live target and I can certainly see plenty of upsides about her for that race. It should be flagged though that she wore a tongue-tie here, which suggests an underlying concern over her breathing. While it’s not a strong negative, it's worth noting.

Over the last three seasons breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett of The Bloodstock Connection has marked our card over some of his more exciting two-year olds, naming future winners each season. 

I caught up with Johnny as he recovered from surgery after a nasty accident at the Arqana sale at Deauville left him with a broken leg. Despite being underwhelmed by the nutritional offerings of the French healthcare system, he was in good spirits and at pains to explain that he felt this year's crop of two-year-olds were his best yet. As such, it was hard to get this down to just a few – good news if you were a customer of his this spring!

This gorgeous bay colt made 100,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Craven Sale, and while I was happy with that result I do think he was well bought at that price by Oliver St Lawrence. He didn’t breeze fast, but I didn’t expect him to and he is a gorgeous athletic model with a good brain. With his physique and pedigree he’ll be one for later this season, though I’m sure it will be 2025 until you see him near his best. 

His sire needs no introduction and I liked that his multiple Group-placed dam has produced two individual winners from two runners, including the Olympic Glory half-brother who was forward enough to win as a two-year-old.

He’s gone into training with George Boughey and I’m excited to see what he can do with him.

Luck is the most valuable commodity when dealing with horses, and while I’m quite content with the way the ball bounced for me this season we maybe did lack a smidge of luck with this lightening fast filly. 

She has a smart back pedigree, coming from a nice Niarchos family, and she is a full sister to Fox Degree who won as a two-year-old. To my (potentially biased) eye she was the standout filly in the Goffs Doncaster sale and duly clocked the fifth fastest breeze, but then during inspections she was mildly lame. Vet checks and X-rays were clear, but understandably that limited interest in her. 

George Baker was the lucky beneficiary and I’ve joked with him that he got her for half-price. She’s a seriously smart and I’d expect her to be out soon enough; she has the potential to be an Ascot filly.

He’s simply been a star to deal with since I bought him for €160,000 at Goffs in September and he’s a super model with a great attitude to his work. His full sister, Alpen Rose, was a Group Three winner in Germany and, while I’m reluctant to make predictions, I really do think he’s got all the tools to be a Group horse himself. He will get better with age but I don’t see him just as a three-year-old, he’s a February foal and might well be a known quantity by the end of this season.

Anthony Stroud bought him for €430,000 and he’s going to be trained by Roger Varian for KHK Racing. I wish them the best of luck with this cracking colt.

Proven sires are my preferred line of direction when it comes to buying my yearlings, but I was happy to chance this chestnut colt by Segei Prokofiev even as a first foal, largely down to the admiration I have for Ed Harper of Whitsbury Manor Stud. The industry is full of smart analytical people, but for my money he operates on a different level to anyone else when it comes to selecting and making stallions.

This colt has done really well through the winter; he’s now 16.2hh and 550kg and he's showing lots of pace.

He goes to the Tattersalls Ireland sale at Fairyhouse next week, and providing our luck holds I’d expect him to clock a fast time and be well received by purchasers.