racing news/

The Cheka Seeks to Pocket the Tattersalls Timeform Million
25/09/08

Oxfordshire trainer Eve Johnson Houghton is eyeing a lucrative Newmarket double with her classy juvenile colt The Cheka, who could be aimed at both the Tattersalls Timeform Million and the Group One Darley Dewhurst Stakes.

Johnson Houghton revealed this morning: “The Tattersalls Timeform Million is the plan at the moment. It’s possible that we might miss the Million for the Darley Dewhurst and go straight to the Dewhurst without another run, but the most likely scenario is to go the Million and then the Dewhurst.”

The inaugural running of the seven-furlong Tattersalls Timeform Million (2.35pm), with a guaranteed minimum value of £1,000,000, occurs on totesport.com Cambridgeshire Day, Saturday, October 4, the richest day’s racing in Britain. The fantastic Cambridgeshire Meeting takes place on October 2, 3 and 4.

The £270,000 Group One Darley Dewhurst Stakes (2.35pm), run over the same distance on The NatWest Rowley Mile, often decides champion two-year-old honours and is staged two weeks later on Champions’ Day, Saturday, October 18.

The Cheka made a stunning debut under Richard Quinn at Ascot in July, storming to a 10-length victory over Pegasus Lad in a seven-furlong novice event. He followed that with a fine half-length second to Sri Putra in the Group Three Solario Stakes over the same trip at Sandown on August 30.

The Blewbury handler continued: “He seems fine after his Sandown run and is in good form. I was delighted with that effort, I think greenness just beat him and possibly the track. I think a straight track will suit him much better.

“I don’t want any extreme of ground for him but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be, so he’ll be fine. At the moment, I think Richard Quinn will continue his partnership.”

The Xaar colt, who shares his name with the first Soviet state security organisation, created by Lenin in 1917 in the wake of Russia’s October Revolution and orchestrators of the Red Terror, is owned by Anthony Pye-Jeary and comedian Mel Smith.

Pye-Jeary and Smith are longstanding patrons of Johnson Houghton’s stable near Didcot, which tasted Darley Dewhurst success in 1968 with Ribofilio and Tout Seul in 2002, both trained by the current incumbent’s father Fulke Johnson Houghton.

The Tattersalls Timeform Million is for two-year-olds that were catalogued in Part One of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year. The winning horse receives a guaranteed purse of £550,000 or 55 per cent of the total prize fund, whichever is greater.

The Cheka, whose sire won the 1997 Darley Dewhurst Stakes for trainer Andre Fabre, was a 58,000 guineas purchase at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

The Tattersalls Timeform Million is the most lucrative prize on a fantastic totesport.com Cambridgeshire Day that also features the seven-furlong Tattersalls Timeform Fillies’ 800 (2.05pm). The race is for two-year-old fillies catalogued in Part One of the 2007 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and carries a guaranteed minimum prize fund of £800,000.

There is also an intriguing Group One contest on the seven-race card, the £200,000 Kingdom Of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes (3.10pm). The prestigious race brings together some of the best female milers in Europe.

Always a favourite with racegoers down the years is the historic totesport.com Cambridgeshire (3.45pm). Worth £160,000, the nine-furlong handicap is a great spectacle and forms the first leg of the Autumn Double.

The Darley Dewhurst Stakes is part of the best day’s Flat racing in Britain. Champions’ Day, featuring the £375,000 Emirates Airline Champion Stakes, showcases two Group Ones, three Group Twos, a Group Three and the second leg of the Autumn Double, the £160,000 totesport.com Cesarewitch.