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Renaissance target for Athletico

Go Athletico Go Athletico
© Photo Healy Racing

Ado McGuinness is eyeing the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes for Go Athletico at the Curragh at the end of the month.

The French-bred failed to make much impression in the Flying Five at HQ on Champions Weekend and McGuinness is hoping for rain before his next outing.

Go Athletico was making his first start in four months in the Group 1 last Sunday, finishing 13th of 18 behind Bradsell.

“He came out of it great. Unfortunately we were drawn the wrong side, it was so biased," said the Lusk handler.

“When you look at the Flying Five the other day the first six horses home were all English.

“Our sprinters here in Ireland just don't sprint enough. You have to travel them all the time to get sprinting. It's just not competitive enough here all the time.

“These guys are sprinting week in week out, all over England and some of them travel even further afield. It's a huge difference and it makes a horse a lot sharper.

“Our horse hadn't run in four months. I was happy and we'll go to the Renaissance now in a couple of weeks time. Hopefully there will be some water coming, and the ground will have a little bit of an ease.”

About Gary Carson
Gary started out as a trainee/assistant journalist with the Sporting Life newspaper and has worked in the racing industry for over 25 years. He has been with the Press Association since 2013 and won the Irish Field Nap Table in 2016. He enjoys working with horses and trained his own horse, Mamaslittlestar, to win a point-to-point in 2019.