USA: Trainer George Weaver will be heading to Royal Ascot next month after sweeping both ‘win and you’re in’ qualifiers for Britain’s most prestigious meeting at Gulfstream Park on Saturday [May 13].
Newcomer No Nay Mets, who is owned by Houston Astros All Star third baseman Alex Bregman, landed the inaugural running of the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile before Weaver-trained stablemate Crimson Advocate completed the double in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies.
Both races were five-furlong contests on turf, each providing its winner with an automatic berth into one of six two-year-old events at Royal Ascot [June 20-24], as well as a $25,000 equine travel stipend for shipping from the US.
Weaver has had a runner before at the royal meeting, where he saddled 33-1 shot Cyclogenesis to finish 14th of 18 behind Muhaarar in the Commonwealth Cup in 2015.
“I always said after I went to Ascot the first time it would be nice to go back with someone who has a chance to win and both of these horses look like they do,” said the trainer. “They have that early speed. I do need to look at the menu before picking out a race although I’d like to keep both of them at five-eighths if we can.”
No Nay Mets (Luca Panici) was an 11-1 upset winner of the Royal Palm Juvenile, in which the Irish-bred son of No Nay Never made all before a 3½-length victory in 57.50s.
“He’s a pretty nifty colt,” said Weaver. “He was on a rushed schedule for this. There’s no reason not to go over there – it’s a lot of fun and he’s got as good a chance as anybody.”
Steve Cauthen’s Holding the Line, the 3-5 favorite trained by 12-time Royal Ascot winner Wesley Ward, raced forwardly before fading to seventh.
In the fillies’ race, Crimson Advocate seized complete command after breaking alertly under Edwin Gonzalez. She established an early lead from Ward-trained favorite Ocean Mermaid, who claimed second place, 3 ½ lengths behind the winner. The winner clocked 56.25s,
A daughter of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, Crimson Advocate had finished third on last month’s debut at at Keeneland. “We really liked her going into the race up there,” explained Weaver. “I expected her to be on the lead or close to it, but she was green. We put some blinkers on her today and she broke sharp and looked good the whole way.”
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