Victorians celebrated at Royal Ascot overnight with Aussie bred and owned Flying Artie mare Asfoora following the path blazed successfully by many Aussie sprinters in the past when she charged home to win the Group I King Charles Stakes (5f).
Trained by Henry Dwyer and ridden by Oisin Murphy, Asfoora has won multiple Group races in Australia and been competitive at Group I level with her final run here before setting her sights on the UK resulting in a fourth in the Group I ATC The Galaxy to Zapateo on March 23.
Sent over early and given time to acclimatize, Asfoora was fourth in the Group II Temple Stakes at Haydock on soft ground last month, but bounced out of that run and was ready to fire at Ascot on firmer ground.
She unwound a big finish for Murphy and surged to the line to win by a length in 58.66 seconds beating Regional with race favourite Big Evs in third place.
“We needed a lead-up run at Haydock, so we were always going to come early, but just with the changing of seasons we wanted to be here before it was too cold in Australia and too warm. We came over in the nice interchange period and Asfoora settled in brilliantly,” said Henry Dwyer.
“We’ve come a long way from Ballarat but it’s been an amazing experience from start to finish and we’ve been so well looked after and we’re so grateful for that.”
Asfoora has now won nine of 20 starts earning over $2million in prizemoney and looks set to remain in the UK for a few more races.
“I've got to have a look at the race conditions again but we'd love to showcase her a bit. Everyone has just been so good to us over here and I'd love to send her down to Goodwood and up to York, but we'll put the horse first,” Dwyer added.
Oisin Murphy got the best from Asfoora and was delighted with her performance.
“I’m thrilled for connections because it was very brave to come from Australia with a very good horse but she’s taken all the travel and performed on the day,” Murphy said.
“I wasn’t focusing on Big Evs, I was focusing on Regional and he gave me the perfect tow to halfway.
“She lugged a little bit right under pressure but how good was she on the line.
Bred by Noor Elaine Farm and retained to race after she was passed in when offered for sale at the 2020 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, Asfoora is the first foal of placed I Am Invincible mare Golden Child, who comes from the family of Group III winner Big Chill and stakes-winners Hard Stride and Utah Saints.
Golden Child has a yearling colt by Dirty Work that was bought by Henry Dywer for $140,000 at Inglis Premier and after being given a year off is now back in foal to Flying Artie.
Asfoora is the second Group I winner for Blue Gum Farm’s Flying Artie and the first for I Am Invincible as a broodmare sire.
Flying Artie stands this spring at a fee of $16,500.
