A Morning With Marco Botti

While we were celebrating Christmas, Marco Botti was celebrating his 40th birthday, but a rather more important milestone for the trainer is notching up his first decade in Newmarket.

With Botti hailing from Italy and his wife and right-hand woman Lucie from the Czech Republic, it is perhaps no surprise that the couple has reached for broader horizons than just the famed turf of British racing's headquarters, with their major winners spreading the word of their training talents across continents.

'Have horse, will travel' has very much been the Botti motto in the 10 years since Sesmen (GB) (Inchinor {GB}) became the stable's first group winner. Her victory in the G3 Prestige S. at Goodwood inspired the name of the state-of-the-art yard, Prestige Place, built from scratch on former Kremlin Stud land four years ago.

Major subsequent victories have included a first top-level strike with Gitano Hernando (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) in the GI Goodwood S. at Santa Anita, a German Classic success and G1 Prix du Moulin victory for Excelebration (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Joshua Tree (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire})'s GI Canadian International of 2012 and a GI Beverly D S. victory for Euro Charline (GB) (Myboycharlie {Ire}), who recently sold to Japan for 750,000gns. Two American St Leger S. wins with Jakkalberry (Ire) (Storming Home {GB}) and Dandino (GB) (Dansili {GB}), the globe-trotting pair who were also placed in the G1 Melbourne Cup and G1 Caulfield Cup, respectively, have added to a highly respectable worldwide record which saw Botti named International Trainer of the Year at the HWPA Derby Awards of 2012.

Along with regular forays to continental Europe and North America, Botti runners have long been a feature of the Dubai International Racing Carnival and in the dying days of 2016, the trainer is busily preparing his team for the forthcoming carnival, with five horses set to leave Newmarket on the first flight on Jan. 7 and another three to follow a few weeks later.

“For a number of the clients we have–American, Dubaian–they enjoy having runners abroad,” says Botti. “Sheikh Khalifa likes to target horses for Dubai and [Team Valor principal] Barry Irwin likes to have runners in America. We've been lucky in that we've had decent success abroad–it's not the priority but we enjoy travelling horses and going for good prize-money.”

He continues, “We don't have anything for Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock this year, so unless we can find another suitable horse, it might be a while before we go back to Melbourne but otherwise we will continue to send horses to America and Dubai.”

Last year's Carnival saw the Botti stable head into the turf season at home with $1 million in the bag, thanks to Euro Charline's second-place finish in the G1 Dubai Turf, a win for Fanciful Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who returns to Dubai this time around, and several other decent place-getters.

“Over the years, a lot of our horses have done well there and I am keen to take a few of 3-year-olds there this time, such as Magical Forest (Ire) (Casamento {Ire}), who was second the other day at Kempton,” the trainer says. “She's rated 75 and would probably win a Class 4 in England but we nominated her for Dubai and she's been invited so we are keen to take our chance. Hopefully if she does well it would be fantastic to run in the UAE 1000 Guineas. We encourage our owners to send horses to Dubai if we think they will handle the dirt or fast ground.”

In recent weeks, Botti has taken charge of five horses from Italy, previously trained by his brother Stefano, including last year's G3 Premio Pariolo (Italian 2000 Guineas) winner Poeta Diletto (GB) (Poet's Voice {GB}). The chestnut colt will not be among the Dubai raiders, but the classy treble Group 1 winner Dylan Mouth (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) will be, as well as multiple listed winner Brex Drago (Ity) (Mujahid) and Scuderia Blueberry's homebred Kyllachy Gala (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}).

“We have a good team for this year with a few ex-Italian-trained horses,” Botti notes. “Brex Drago been placed in group races and shouldn't mind fast ground. Kyllachy Gala is rated 105 and is a miler, so there will be a few races for him. Naadirr (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is a good sprinter, perhaps not a proper group horse in England, but he will be competitive.

“We're also taking Qatar Man (Ire) (Archarcharch), who won at Kempton in November and will be aimed at the [G3] UAE 2000 Guineas, while Zumurudee (Stormy Atlantic), who belongs to Sheikh Khalifa, will probably go for Super Saturday with a view that if he does well, we will aim him at the [G2] UAE Derby on World Cup night.”

Along with the horses goes Botti's wife Lucie and their two children Matteo and Valentina, while the trainer remains in Newmarket to oversee a team which includes last year's all-weather champion and the stable's current top earner, Grendisar (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). A lucrative campaign last February and March saw him string together wins in the Listed Winter Derby Trial followed by the G3 Winter Derby then the Coral Easter Classic on the All-Weather Finals day at Lingfield. Bought by Middleham Park Racing last summer, the 7-year-old's targets will be very much the same for this year, and he has recently notched two placed efforts at his favourite course after returning from a seven-month break on Nov. 12.

Botti says, “I'm not disappointed in his two recent runs. Last year at this stage he took a while to get to the peak of his form and those two races didn't go quite to the plan we wanted. But Grendisar retains his ability and will go for the Winter Derby Trial in February and then the Winter Derby and Finals Day on Good Friday, so he is our main player for the all-weather championships. The prize-money is fantastic and we also have a couple of 3-year-olds in mind to try to qualify for the finals.”

And while the 40 or so yearlings at the stable have just officially become 2-year-olds and are still just nascent racehorses, it is the burgeoning potential of his 3-year-olds that is keeping the trainer warm through the current cold snap in Newmarket.

“In 2016, I always felt that we were going to have a better season towards the end of the year because our 2-year-olds were big, strong colts and a bit backward but nice types for next year,” he says. “We ran a few and we did well and we probably still have a handful of 3-year-olds who will be nice horses for this year, including two Dubawi (Ire) colts. We also have a Mayson (GB) colt called Mio Ragazzo (GB) for Scuderia Blueberry–he hasn't run yet. He's a huge horse so we've given him some time but when we've done a little bit of faster work with him he's suggested that he has plenty of ability so he could be an interesting horse to follow. We'll see over the next six or seven weeks as we step them up in faster work but I think we'll have a better team of 3-year-olds this year than we did last year.”

As already noted, as well as support from the Middle East and America, over the last decade Botti has been fortunate to retain his ties with his homeland and to have received a steady supply of horses first from his father's stable and later from his brother, who took over the training operation in Italy several years ago and is the country's leading trainer.

He explains, “The Italian horses I am sent have done well there and have a high-enough rating to do well in foreign races. At the same time it is becoming more difficult to sell older horses in Italy–the market is very quiet there and it's hard to get those horses sold. With the Italian authorities being slow to pay prize-money a number of owners decide to take the chance to send them abroad, so I'm in the lucky position that I get nice horses sent to me. Some of them are perhaps too highly rated but we've seen in the past that they can do well if they go to Dubai as they are used to running on fast ground.

“My parents and my brother are really a team and work very closely together. It helps me to have the inside knowledge of these horses when they are sent to England, and they are here to race but also to trade.”

Botti's decision to base himself in Britain has clearly worked well not just for himself but also for the family firm, and he insists there's no sibling rivalry.

“My brother and I get on really well because we are in two different countries. He's doing really well in Italy, though competition there is not as tough as in England, but we speak a lot and I'm very pleased when he has all those big wins in major races and vice versa.”

If recent years are anything to go by, we can expect the Marco Botti stable to be at the forefront of some major races way before the British turf season comes out of hibernation in late March.