Mike de Kock plans an ambitious raid on Europe’s biggest races from Abington Place stables in Newmarket this summer.
De Kock’s team is to include Bold Silvano, Golden Sword, the fillies Raihana, Mahbooba, Reem and the mare River Jetez – who is currently in Hong Kong for the Gr1 QEII Cu on 1st May.
Bold Silvano won the second round of the Al Maktoum Challenge in February, a performance which shot him to the top of the boards for the Dubai World Cup, won by the Japanese horse Victoire Pisa. Bold Silvano suffered an injury which ruled him out of the race, but De Kock is confident and has him lined up for a prep race in England before an assignment at the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in the US in November.
He told The National: “Bold Silvano will be restored to fitness and hopefully will be ready to be aimed at the Breeders’ Cup or go to Hong Kong after having a prep in England.”
Raihana, Mahbooba and Reem would race at Newmarket’s July meeting before crossing the Atlantic to race at Arlington in August.
“I am going to be looking at the Falmouth Stakes with the fillies, with one or two of them possibly going on to the Beverly D in America.”Musir, currently in Hong Kong for the Champions Mile on 25 April, will have a break and hopefully will run in the July Cup at Newmarket’s three-day July meeting,” De Kock said.
His stables, Abington Place in Newmarket, was bought by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa, De Kock’s principal patron. Bought in 2009 from Geoff Wragg, Mike used them last year a team of nine, which included JJ The Jet Plane and Imbongi. This year the De Kock team have an ambitious Northern Hemisphere campaign.
