Elusive Pimpernel, a three-year-old colt by Elusive Quality, had his odds slashed for the first Classic of the British season, the 2000 Guineas, when winning the G3 Craven Stakes in emphatic style on Thursday.
The handsome dark brown colt took Newmarket’s colts’ Guineas trial by four lengths under champion jockey Ryan Moore. Raced by his breeder Windflower Overseas Holdings Inc, Elusive Pimpernel is out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Cara Fantasy and won last season’s G3 Acomb Stakes at York before finishing runner-up to St Nicholas Abbey in the G1 Racing Post Trophy.
Newmarket has come to life this week with the return of flat racing and the first major two-year-old auction of the European season, the Tattersalls Craven breeze-up. Day one saw top price paid for a son of Darley’s European leading first-season sire in 2009, Shamardal, but just behind this colt was another by Medaglia d'Oro, who was knocked down to agent John McCormack for 200,000gns ($325,253). The March-foaled colt is out of the Gone West mare Western Dreamer, herself a Stakes-winning two-year-old.
The sale continues on Thursday.
