‘Visually she looked outstanding’ – Asfoora bidding to roar back to form at York
Henry Dwyer is very hopeful that his Royal Ascot-winning mare Asfoora (Flying Artie) is back to her best as the now seven-year-old put in her final preparations ahead of Friday’s Nunthorpe Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) at York.
Having hit the dizzy heights of landing the King Charles III Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) at last year’s Royal Ascot meeting, the daughter of Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) is yet to reach the same summit in 2025 so far.
A return to the royal meeting in defence of her Group 1 crown saw Asfoora run a very respectable fifth, beaten two lengths, after fading in the closing stages having been unable to take in a lead-up run prior to the Group 1 feature.
Then a return to Goodwood last time out produced a seventh-placed run in the King George Stakes (Gr 2, 5f), beaten two and a quarter lengths behind Jm Jungle (Bungle Inthejungle).
On the face of it, that latest effort wasn’t a bad run. However, compared with her 2024 finish in the same contest, where she was beaten just a short-head by Big Evs (Blue Point) despite carrying a two-pound penalty for her Royal Ascot success, it could be counted as a little disappointing.
Dwyer, however, has his reasons for both runs in the UK this season and both are very viable. Asfoora was unable to take in Haydock’s Temple Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) prior to her Ascot run this time around due to a late flight over from Australia, and the heavens had opened in the hours leading up to her latest outing at Goodwood.
“We’ve sort of almost known the outcome before both races so far and we just haven’t had things go our way,” Dwyer told ANZ News on Tuesday.
“We knew at Ascot she was going to struggle having only been in the country two weeks prior to the race and not being able to do much work with having to recover from the flight.
“She only got beat two lengths there, and I feel there is much more than two lengths improvement in her from then to now. We then went to Goodwood with a bit of optimism feeling she had made the improvement that she needed to, but we were thwarted by the rain and the wet track.
“I’ve been making excuses and I hate making excuses, but there have been genuine ones and I think to have only been beaten two lengths and two and a quarter lengths in those runs augurs well for Friday when I do believe she will be at the peak of her powers.”
As UK and worldwide viewers already know, Asfoora’s peak is a high one, with her 2024 King Charles success a definite career-best and one that would surely be good enough to put her bang there if repeated on Friday – a scenario that Dwyer hopes can occur.
“This morning was good,” the Ballarat-based trainer said. “She just had a little 600-metre breeze-up and visually she looked outstanding.
“I mean she looks in great health, but her work was great, she toed the work rider Chenelle through it. I came over yesterday to watch her work today and to go to the races on Friday and everything I wanted to see I saw from her this morning. I think she’s in rude health.”
Asfoora’s Royal Ascot-winning rider Oisin Murphy is once again booked for the mount on Friday, and has also echoed Dwyer’s thoughts on the mare’s pair of runs so far this European campaign.
“Even before the race at Goodwood I spoke to Oisin in the mounting yard and he just said it was going to be too hard for her with the track being how it was and after the race he said she just didn’t handle it,” Dwyer said.
“To her credit she ran really well regardless and now on a back on a big flat track like York with top of the ground, even though it will be a big field, I just can’t see why she can’t be competitive.”
Dwyer had outlined the Nunthorpe Stakes as Asfoora’s main target in 2024, but after her win at Ascot and excellent follow-up second at Goodwood, felt his stable star had just emptied slightly when running fourth – a length and a quarter behind Bradsell (Tasleet) – in the Coolmore-sponsored Group 1 on the Knavesmire.
“Last year it was the plan to have her at her peak for this race, but it didn’t work out like that,” he said.
“She ran so well at Ascot, which came after a lead-up run at Haydock, and then ran so well at Goodwood that I think she just ran a little bit below par at York and may have been coming to the end of her campaign.
“Whereas, this year it wasn’t the plan to have her peaking at York but it sort of became the plan after we knew we likely wouldn’t be ready for Ascot and then the unsuitable track at Goodwood, which we effectively used as a lead-up run to this contest given she’d had a break following Ascot.
“So in a roundabout way it has come that this race has been the target. It wasn’t always the plan, but I think it will work out well given the way we’ve seen her this morning.”
As for plans following Friday’s Group 1, Dwyer admitted that a big call could be made should Asfoora badly underperform, but was hopeful of taking in a trip to Ireland for the Flying Five Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) and even a further trip to France.
“We’d love to do that and we think she’s in good order, but she is now a seven-year-old mare and she might just be looking for a stallion,” Dwyer admitted.
“If she runs up to her best on Friday then we will certainly be continuing with her, but if we don’t feel she’s there then we might just pull the pin.”
On what the future could hold for Asfoora, Dwyer revealed the final decision will be up to her owner Akram El-Fahkri of Noor Elaine Farm.
“That [Asfoora’s future] will be a decision for after the race, and one that the owner Akram El-Fahkri will make,” Dwyer added.
“He’s suggested that he is more than likely to retain her and take her back to Australia, but that could mean being covered by a stallion here on her way back on southern hemisphere time. The window is still open for potentially putting her through a mare’s sale later in the year also, which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.
“In an ideal world he’d like to keep her racing for another year but as we’ve said it all depends on her form. We’ve had excuses to date and haven’t had a true reading on how she’s going from her races, but I think she’s currently going as well as she can and hopefully she shows that on Friday.”