Former Aussie star Haradasun out to win Lockinge for Ireland

13 April 2012

British punters get a first glimpse of Aidan O'Brien's Australian secret weapon when he unleashes Haradasun in this afternoon's Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

Coolmore Stud bought a half share for £11million in the dual Group One winner who has been shipped to Europe in the hope that he can enhance his reputation and future value as a stallion.

In 2005 compatriot Starcraft made the same journey to be trained by Luca Cumani and picked up two Group One races over a mile, the Prix du Moulin and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Haradasun, who has been backed from 8-1 to 7-2 with Hills for today's race, was trained Down Under by Tony Vasil, the man who saddled the half-brother to Haradasun, Elvstroem, to finish fourth to Rakti in the 2005 Lockinge and third to Azamour in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot at York.

Aussie owner Frank Tagg, who retains a quarter share in the colt, said yesterday: 'He won't want the ground too firm and has run his best races in Australia on dead going.

'We are trying to work out what is his best distance. After watching his Australian videos, Aidan thinks he is a mile horse whereas Tony always thought he was a 2,000m (1m 2f) horse.

'He has been given plenty of entries during the summer and hopefully tomorrow will tell us where else we go but the most likely race will be the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot next month.'

O'Brien also runs last year's French 2,000 Guineas winner Astronomer Royal, while the sponsors attempt to win their money back with Henry Cecil's unbeaten Phoenix Tower.

The four-year-old colt who has untapped potential having been restricted to only four runs following hairline fractures of his femur and pelvis.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in