Australian part-owned Light Infantry went close to a Group I win overnight at Longchamp and remains on track for this year’s Cox Plate with his brave second in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan (1700m) behind the Shadwell runner Anmaat.
Trained by Owen Burrows, Anmaat is a progressive five year-old Awtaad gelding with a super consistent record and closed out last year with a Group II win at Longchamp.
He returned with a second to Derby winner Adayar in a Group III race at Newmarket at the start of the month and produced a career best performance for Jim Crowley to overhaul Light Infantry and win by a short neck.
“Anmaat is pretty laid back about life so he'll never win by a couple of lengths. He doesn't show a huge amount at home but he's bloody tough. The ground was as quick as we'd want to go in today but he doesn't half travel, even on this ground,” said Owen Burrows, whose had a successful week with another of his Shadwell horses Hukum returning from injury to win at Newmarket last week.
Both Anmaat and Hukum are entered for the Group I Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
"He’s entered and as I’ve touched on with Hukum, if it happened to be a wet week leading up to Ascot, that would suit him as well. But I don’t think they'd run against each other. I think we can find enough races to keep them apart, at this time of the year anyway,” Burrows said.
Part owned by Australian Colin and Janice McKenna's Halo Racing, Light Infantry ran sixth of 20 in the Golden Eagle last year to I Wish I Win and the David Simock trained son of Fast Company may run at Royal Ascot before he heads back to Australia for a possible crack at the Cox Plate.
“We’ll look at Ascot but at the same time we’ve given him an aggressive campaign because there is going to be a big void during high summer before he goes to Australia," said Simcock.
"He’s in the Queen Anne, the Prince of Wales’s and he’ll have an entry in the Wolferton, just to have a look."
With seven wins and five placings from 12 starts, Anmaat was bred by Ringfort Stud and was bought by Shadwell for 140,000 guineas at the 2018 December Foal Sale.
He is a half-brother to Group III winner Syntax and is the best of seven winners from Halling mare African Moonlight, a full sister to multiple Group winner Mzuki.
Anmaat is the first Group I winner for his Shadwell based sire Awtaad whose oldest progeny are five year-olds. A son of Cape Cross that won the Group I Irish 2000 Guineas, Awtaad has a couple of smart runners in Australia in Group III winner Diamil (IRE) and Group II placed Waterford (IRE) and stands at Derrinstown Stud for Shadwell at a fee of just 5,000 euros.
