Ascot© Photo Healy Racing
Former jockey Andreas Suborics will experience Ascot from a different vantage point when Quantanamera takes her chance in the Qipco British Champions Fillies &; Mares Stakes on Saturday.
The Lope De Vega mare was last seen contesting the Grand Prix de Deauville in late August, a Group Two run over a trip of just over a mile and a half on very soft ground.
There she was a decisive winner, covering a great deal of distance late on to defeat John and Thady Gosden’s former Derby favourite Arrest by four lengths with the rest of the field well beaten behind them.
A trip to England for British Champions Day now beckons, with the testing ground set to benefit her and Suborics therefore hoping the race is not moved away from the traditional round course to the inner round course.
“She is fine, her preparation has been perfect. We have been looking forward to this race and the ground is ideal for her,” said Suborics.
“She had her best performance on this kind of ground, hopefully they stay on the outside track and don’t move to the inside.
“She’s in great condition and everything has gone brilliantly with her.”
Quantanamera was unbeaten as as a two-year-old before injury interrupted her three-year-old campaign, but she still produced some solid efforts in Group races and as a four-year-old has hit her stride of late.
“She was a champion two-year-old in Germany, but then she injured her back leg in March last year, so for all of her three-year-old season we were more concerned with keeping her healthy than her races,” said Suborics.
“This time she started out not too bad, she was second at Saint-Cloud (in the Prix Corrida) and then she had an infection when she ran at Cologne, I brought her back a bit too quickly from that at Hamburg.
“In Munich (fourth in the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis) she was the fastest horse in the end, but the 2,000 metres is just a bit sharp for her, so I was confident going into Deauville and the way she won was impressive. She showed her true ability that day.”
Austrian-born and German-based Suborics was formerly a highly-successful Flat rider most readily associated with top-class Pattern performers and subsequent sires Tiger Hill, Shirocco, Silvano, Paolini and Overdose.
The latter two horses provided him with experience of the Ascot track during his years in the saddle and he has also been a team member at the Shergar Cup meeting more than once.
“I rode there three or four times in the Shergar Cup and won two or three races,” he said.
“I rode Paolini in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, so I know the track a bit. I also rode Overdose in the Group One sprint (King’s Stand) and finished fourth, so I have had a few rides at the track.
“Of course there’s an amazing grandstand now and it’s brilliant to be a part of this big day as a trainer – I’m really looking forward to flying over for Saturday.”
