Horse Racing: Miss Andretti Likely to Return Home

The four-strong team of Australian sprinters that was such a significant feature of last week's Royal Ascot has started to fragment as the meeting recedes into history, with Miss Andretti, who took the King's Stand Stakes in record time a week ago, likely to return to Australia in the near future. Takeover Target, who won the same race last year, may now be retired altogether, but Magnus, third in the King's Stand and 14th of 21 in the Golden Jubilee Stakes on Saturday, is reported to be on course for the July Cup at Newmarket two weeks on Friday.

Bentley Biscuit, who finished last on unsuitably fast ground in the King's Stand Stakes, is also being considered for the July Cup, so the Australian-themed summer should continue until the next major Festival meeting. However, Miss Andretti's blistering run down the Ascot straight in 57.44 seconds last week is as good as it will get for her British backers, after Lee Freedman, her trainer, effectively ruled her out of the July Cup yesterday.

"I'll have to discuss it with Sean [Buckley, Miss Andretti's owner]," said Freedman, "but my advice will be to go into quarantine, go back to Australia and then concentrate on Hong Kong at the end of the year."

Joe Janiak, trainer of Takeover Target, said yesterday that the eight-year-old gelding, who finished fourth and second in his two starts at Ascot last week, will head for home to be prepared for Melbourne's spring carnival, which begins in late October.

"I'm just so proud of him, he keeps coming up year after year at the top level," Janiak said. "If the horse is well and racing well we'd love to come back [to Ascot] but for now it's back home to prepare for the spring carnival. But it wouldn't even surprise me if we take him home and retire him. We'll just go home and see how he pulls up after all that."

Magnus remains an interesting contender for either the Juy Cup or the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in August, given that he was the least exposed of the Australian raiders and ran an excellent race in the King's Stand. "He pulled too hard [in the Golden Jubilee]," Peter Moody, his trainer, said yesterday. "They walked [in the race] and he pulled himself into the ground and got fired up too much."

Roger Mosey, the director of BBC Sport, says that he is "very happy" with the Corporation's reduced viewing figures for last week's meeting. "The figures for racing can fluctuate according to various factors," Mosey said. "Last year was a World Cup year and you quite often find that the fact those games are on means more people are watching television. You can never entirely compare year on year."

Ron Cox's tip of the day


Louviere 8.05 Newbury

Trainer Pat Eddery is showing a profit with his three-year-olds this term and Louviere can add to that tally tonight. This filly made an encouraging debut at Newmarket over 1m2f last month when finishing to good effect after getting outpaced and she will be suited by this longer trip. The strength of that maiden has been boosted since, with the fourth, fifth and sixth all landing their maidens.