Planteur team planning Royal Ascot raid

6th April, 2012 - Posted by Elliot Slater - Comments Off

Marco Botti saw his three runners at Dubai’s biggest race night of the year all run with great credit, in particular Planteur, who finished a tremendous third behind Monterosso in the hugely valuable Dubai World Cup on his first outing for the Italian-born handler, writes Elliot Slater.

Bottis’s other two runners at the fixture, Jackalberry and Joshua Tree, both finished in the frame as well to complete a lucrative night for the trainer and his owners, and the young Newmarket-based trainer is already planning a raid on the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Betfair Royal Ascot in June with Planteur, a horse who has proved himself in the past to be capable of very high class form.

Trained until recently by Ellie Lelouche in France, Planteur finished runner-up in the 2010 French Derby behind Loup de Vega, before filling the same position on his following start behind Bekhabad in the Grand Prix de Paris. Disqualified after running well for a very long way in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe of that year, the son of Danehill Dancer won his first two starts of last term, most notably beating the smart Sarafina to land the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp last April.

Fourth to the ill-fated Rewilding in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes last June, the five-year-old ran below-par on his subsequent outings and was sold by the Wildenstein family on the eve of the World Cup to Ahmed Al Falasi, for whom he made such a great start in grabbing third place in the prestigious 10-furlong contest, and with it a hefty £645,000 for taking the minor honour.

Botti has already proved himself a fine trainer, in particular excelling last term with the high-class Excelebration who repeatedly found only the great Frankel too good for him. Planteur is a fine addition to his string with tempting Epson derby racing odds and could well keep the Italian very much in the headlines this term since losing last season’s standard bearer to Ballydoyle during the winter.