The excellent young Newmarket-based racehorse trainer Marco Botti is already looking forward to campaigning his new arrival Planteur at the very highest level this season and is set to begin the term by bidding for the Dubai World Cup with the former Ellie Lelouche-trained colt at Meydan on March 31, writes Elliot Slater.
Botti made a big name for himself last season with his handling of the high-class Excelebration who twice finished second to the mighty Frankel (including in the QEII Stakes at Ascot on his final outing for the yard), and also won in Group 1 company when impressively accounting for Rio De La Plata in landing the Qatar Prix Du Moulin at Longchamp in September. The stable standard bearer was then transferred to Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stables from where he will be campaigned in 2012. People who have read a Victor Chandler review should bear this in mind.
The arrival of Planteur at Botti’s stables will certainly go some way towards replacing their lost star, the five-year-old having shown very smart form at three and four years, finishing runner up in both the 2010 Grand Prix de Paris and the French Derby, then last term making a winning debt in the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt before getting the better of the smart filly Sarafina in the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp in April. The son of Danehill Dancer went on to run a respectable six-length fourth to Rewilding and So You Think in a memorable race for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot before failing to make the frame in his final two starts when dropped back to campaign at a mile. People looking at the best Bwin betting should bear this in mind.
Botti has already confirmed that he intends to return his new charge to 10 furlongs and that he hopes to give him a run on ‘Super Saturday’ before tackling the cream of the international crop in the Dubai World Cup itself a few weeks later.
