| 30 Apr
| Mark Johnston ran a Sheikh Mohammed homebred in the race
last year called Battlecruiser which was on it's debut. It looked big and
usable enough to suggest it might be alright but ran a shocker. Several
more runs of the same negative promise saw him sold off at season's end
for 3,000gns by which time he looked half the size he did at Ascot in May.
What was all that about? More of the same here with a 16,000gns purchase
in Pride Of Kings. He was bred by Floors Stud for whom Johnston
trained Attraction and this one is vaguely related to her (in the sense
that we are all related to Shakespeare at some genetic level).
Now, he has been passed on to Jaber Abdullah who has long had a privileged
position with Mick Channon and often gets useful fillies passed on to him
who were bought cheaply. Look no further back than 2007 when Group winning
fillies Nahoodh & Nijoom Dubai both cost 19,000gns and raced for him
with Channon. Does he have the same position with Johnston? The sales report
on Pride Of Kings was very, that's very, negative about his chances at
2yo and you have to stick with that unless he has entirely metamorphosed
over the winter. As we saw from the 2007 escapade a Johnston debut in this
race for a major, that's major, arab owner doesn't mean much so a very
mixed story.
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![[Picture]](../../08_Publish_Pics/PrideOfKings_080430_asct3.jpg){kind=link}