The smart gold-braided colours of SBA Racing Ltd, the operation of Prince Sultan Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, were seen on a racecourse for the first time on Wednesday and they were carried with some distinction by an equally smart looking filly by the name of Frenetic (Ire). The daughter of Kodiac (GB) appears as professional as she is precocious and made all the running in Navan's opening five-furlong maiden to give Ger Lyons his first 2-year-old winner of the campaign.
That Frenetic is based at the Lyons family's Glenburnie stable is perhaps fortuitous but her 25-year-old owner will certainly not be ruing his choice of trainer, who had the filly on his list at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Ed Sackville ended up placing the successful bid, however, at 170,000gns, on behalf of the Saudi Arabian owner.
“I went into the ring to buy her for a client of mine,” Lyons recalled. “Ed came out of the Gods and asked me if I had underbid her and when I said I had he handed me the docket and said 'she's yours'. I thought to myself 'happy days, it can only be lucky'.”
He added, “It was the first time in my career that somebody has done that to me so it was nice. She's qualified for all the bonuses today so she's won a Book 1 Bonus and a Plus 10 Bonus. I think they're great, those bonuses, especially in difficult times.”
Those difficult times mean that there has been a concertina effect on the early part of the season, and a filly who would have been ready to run during the lockdown will now not be heading to the G2 Queen Mary S. next week.
Lyons said, “She's the sharpest of our 2-year-olds. The lockdown didn't do any harm to any of the 2-year olds, but it did just prevent her from going to Royal Ascot. I've no interest in backing her up that quickly. She'd have been an ideal Queen Mary candidate but with it happening so quick, and with the restrictions on Colin [Keane] and everything like that, it's not up for discussion. It's just one of those years and there are plenty of races here for her.”
He added, “The last two or three weeks she's just been crying out to go away and that was her first time on grass, so all in all it was a very professional performance by her. She did it the hard way and I'm happy with her. This is the owner's first runner and Ed is delighted. Things don't normally happen like that but everything just came right. We ran four 2-year-olds on Monday and and we don't really have horses for five or six [furlongs] so I was sort of putting round pegs into square holes on Monday. They ran exactly as I hoped they would do, and you can be a little rose-tinted at home but I knew that if we had a Queen Mary filly this was her.”
Lyons has a big week in store. On Friday he will saddle the favourite for the Irish 2000 Guineas, the Juddmonte homebred Siskin (First Defence).
“The closer I get to D-Day, the waterier I get but touch wood,” he said. “We have to get there now and everything has to go right, but if he's the best horse will win and if he's not he won't.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
