Ventura Empress
Race entries
Purchased privately, from the same Academy that brought us Brave Emperor, a year ago - Aguiar Bloodstock - this strong, scopey and beautiful filly, comes highly recommended as being in precisely the same mould as last year’s private purchase Brave Emperor.
A very early foal, (24th January), her pedigree is to die for. She’s from a family that has produced both Champion 2yo & 3yo’s and she’s by a sire, in Highland Reel, who won Group 1 races over a variety of middle distances, across 3 continents.
She’s all class, this filly, in both pedigree and physique. She has immense presence, as you can see from her photo, and such scope for future improvement too. She’s very much a filly for both this year AND next.
Here she is at Robson's (two more videos of her walk are in the gallery.)
A year ago we purchased the huge, scopey horse Brave Emperor on Robson’s recommendation that he would be an early runner, who could win over 5f & 6f, but who would progress significantly, as the season went on, and as he stepped up in trip; that’s precisely what happened! He’s now a 4-time winning (unlucky not to be 5) black type performer and a recent LISTED winner. His asset value would be tremendous right now, no doubt, and significantly more than we paid for him initially, rest assured! So, when Robson rings and says he thinks he has a horse very much like Brave Emperor, we have to sit up and take notice. After all, in recent seasons alone, the Aguiar Bloodstock team have brought through the likes of The Lir Jet, Go Bears Go, Persian Force, Lady Hollywood, Summer Sands, Oscula, and many many more.
Based on this filly’s work at home, with some expensive yearlings (and some not so expensive yearlings, it’s fair to say) we’re able to offer a provenance closely akin to that of Brave Emperor, in terms of timescales of her debut i.e. April, distances of her debut i.e. 5f come 6f, and levels of ability i.e. further distances of ground will see her in her element, as with Brave Emperor.
Obviously, from her work at home in January and throughout the busy month of February, preparations wise, over 3f & 4f etc, it’s impossible to say quite what her eventual level of ability will be in a few months’ time, over 7f and a mile, and potentially further next year, however, we’d like to pigeonhole her as a filly with some serious BLACK TYPE potential as the season progresses. If that’s the case, then she’d represent fantastic value at her current market price, given her rather regal pedigree to boot.
We’re sending her to Archie Watson, because he’s so adroitly campaigned Brave Emperor and of course Eddie’s Boy for us in 2022/2023. We’re told she’ll be ready to run, just as soon as the turf season gets underway and you’d hope she’d be winning more than one race, this side of Royal Ascot, before stepping up in distance and Grade, all being well, thereafter.
She’s a very sensibly priced, shot at the big time, with fantastic residual potential, for the paddocks, down the line, we’d like to think. She qualifies for The Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot and also those Sire and Dam Restricted Black Type races that pop up on the calendar, from time to time.
She looks another gem, with an initial yearling purchase, last Autumn, by the Aguiar Bloodstock team of just €22,000. She’s thrived ever since, and arrived at our doorstep, we’re delighted to say.
She qualifies for Band C & D races initially, which, hopefully, will prove to be a happy hunting ground, early on in her career, before going on to much bigger and better things, we’d like to think! She is also IRE qualified (as you can see on her pedigree page.) This scheme awards a sales voucher of €10,000 to owners of Irish-bred winners of selected races across the Flat and National Hunt programmes in Ireland and Britain.
She’ll move from Ireland to Lambourn, literally, this week coming, to enable Archie and his team to put the finishing touches to the filly’s racecourse preparations. She’ll merely have to settle into Lambourn life and we should be ready to go, as soon as the turf season arrives. Hopefully, history is about to repeat itself.