No Nay Never Juvenile Joins Illustrious Honor Roll

Blackbeard (2c No Nay Never - Muirin, by Born To Sea) emerged as a smart prospect when taking Friday’s five furlong maiden at Dundalk.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained bay was sent off second favourite for the juvenile contest, which had previously been won by the likes of Caravaggio and Skitter Skatter, both subsequent Group 1 winners by the late Scat Daddy.

Tracking the leaders under Ryan Moore, he was asked to quicken two furlongs from home and improved to lead a furlong later. Running on well inside the final furlong, he scored by a length and a half, with another six and a half lengths back to the third.

Representing Ballydoyle, Chris Armstorng later commented, “Aidan said he is a fast horse and he has shown plenty at home. Hopefully he'll end up in Ascot and he'll probably go to the Marble Hill on the way. Ryan gave him a lovely ride and he quickened away nicely in the finish.”

A 270,000gns foal purchase by Jamie McCalmont, Blackbeard is owned by Derrick Smith, Mrs John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Westerberg. The son of No Nay Never was bred by Newstead Breeding and is the first foal out of highly-rated juvenile Muirin.

Earlier that afternoon at Saint-Cloud, Doctor Ari (3c No Nay Never - Virginia Gallica, by Galileo) stayed on strongly to land the mile and a half maiden under Cristian Demuro.

A promising fifth on debut in February, the Fabrice Chappet-trained colt got up in the shadow of the post to deny the well-supported Antelope Canyon. Owned by Hubert Guy, he has a two-year-old brother by Caravaggio named Gemici.