French import Go Athletico wins on Irish debut

French import Go Athletico made a winning Irish debut in Cork's Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Midsummer Sprint Stakes today, providing trainer Ado McGuinness with a first win for joint-owners Team Valor.

The five year old sprinter was a Longchamp Group 3 winner in 2020 and having recently won a Deauville Listed race on April 6, was jointly-purchased 22 days later by Team Valor and Shamrock Thoroughbreds for €165,000.

Today the son of Goken won readily to provide jockey Ronan Whelan with a double, having earlier won on Son Of Sampers

McGuinness, whose sprinter A Case Of You won Longchamp's 2021 Prix de l'Abbaye, reported “he was pointed out to Steven (Thorne, assistant) when he was in an online French sale and I don't think his trainer (Andreas Schutz) wanted to lose him at the time. Steven rang Barry Irwin (of Team Valor) and Jimmy Fairhurst and he was bought - I'm delighted for them.”

He added “I knew by his work at home that he was a very smart horse and Ronan was very good on him and kept it simple. He has carried plenty weight today and has done it very easy.

“We were glad there was juice in the ground and he is a great horse to have. We'll enter him up in a few big sprint races in Ireland and we'll have the Flying Five to look forward to at Champions Weekend at the end of the year — he won't disgrace himself that's for sure.”