Star speedsters set to scorch Ascot turf in £600,000 Champions Sprint

Champions Series star speedster Mecca’s Angel is set to target the six furlong contest. Picture: Racingfotos.com

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A fantastic entry for the £600,000 QIPCO British Champions Sprint Stakes includes the first five home in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. The quintet, Twilight Son, Gold-Fun, Signs Of Blessing, Magical Memory and Suedois, were separated by little more than half a length in a pulsating finish at the Royal Meeting.

Gold-Fun, trained in Hong Kong, and Signs Of Blessing, from France, would give the race a tremendous international flavour. As if that were not enough, Limato, the electrifying Darley July Cup winner, could take part, not to mention other star names such as Quiet Reflection, The Tin Man, Lumiere, Shalaa, Dutch Connection, Sole Power, Dancing Star and the ever-green Gordon Lord Byron, who won the race in 2014.

Perhaps the most fascinating entry of all, though, is Mecca’s Angel, the outstanding five-furlong sprinter whose only previous attempt over six furlongs was in 2013. She is on course to defend her Coolmore Nunthorpe crown at York this month but Michael Dods, her trainer, is eager to run her in the sprinting showpiece.

“If everything is right on the day we’d be be keen to have a crack at it,” Dods said. “This will be her last season before she goes off to stud and we felt she deserved the chance to go for six and this race fits the bill. It will be interesting, I think she will stay. It’s been difficult to give her a run over the six because of the targets she’s already got over five. We considered the July Cup this year but I just felt the Newmarket track would not really suit her as well as somewhere like Ascot.

“A lot of people tried to get us to supplement [for the Champions Sprint] last year. We thought long and hard about it, but decided we wouldn’t because we were going to go for the Abbaye. Then that didn’t work out because of the ground.”

List of entries:

1. Adaay (IRE)
2. Air Force Blue (USA)
3. Air Vice Marshal (USA)
4. Ajaya (GB)
5. Brando (GB)
6. Buratino (IRE)
7. Dancing Star (GB)
8. Danzeno (GB)
9. Dick Whittington (IRE)
10. Divine (IRE)
11. Don’t Touch (GB)
12. Donjuan Triumphant (IRE)
13. Dutch Connection (GB)
14. Fort Del Oro (IRE)
15. Goken (FR)
16. Gold-Fun (IRE)
17. Gordon Lord Byron (IRE)
18. Growl (GB)
19. Jack Dexter (GB)
20. Jane’s Memory (IRE)
21. Jimmy Two Times (FR)
22. Kachy (GB)
23. Librisa Breeze (GB)
24. Limato (IRE)
25. Lumiere (GB)
26. Maarek (GB)
27. Magical Memory (IRE)
28. Mecca’s Angel (IRE)
29. Mobsta (IRE)
30. Mr Lupton (IRE)
31. Muhadathat (GB)
32. Naadirr (IRE)
33. Only Mine (IRE)
34. Painted Cliffs (IRE)
35. Perfect Pasture (GB)
36. Quiet Reflection (GB)
37. Shalaa (IRE)
38. Signs of Blessing (IRE)
39. Sole Power (GB)
40. Strath Burn (GB)
41. Suedois (FR)
42. The Tin Man (GB)
43. Twilight Son (GB)
44. Washington DC (IRE)