Excel Racing, the owners of Crowned Eagle, have no such worries though with their four‐year‐old not only guaranteed to make the cut for Saturday’s showpiece event, but also having the form in the book to suggest he can go very close to landing the lucrative pot.
Excel Racing co‐founded in 2015 by Southampton footballer, Charlie Austin, and friend, Paul Fisher, the pair having shared a keen interest in racing from an early age put the syndicate together to create specific partnerships with shares ranging from 5% and upwards, and offering a platform for affordable and enjoyable ownership in top‐quality thoroughbreds. With a flexible set‐up, Excel Racing also offer leasing opportunities giving prospective owners a “try‐before‐ you‐buy” option, allowing owners the chance to experience racehorse ownership without the initial purchase costs.
With 18 horses currently in training and around 70 individual owners on board, Excel Racing, which is still in its relative infancy are growing rapidly and are looking to continue to expand further in the next couple of years. Austin and Fisher are currently preparing for the upcoming yearling sales where they will be looking to further add to their burgeoning team.
“We’ve had quite a bit of success over the past couple years and particularly in 2018, including winning the valuable Spring Mile at Doncaster with High Acclaim, as well as landing The Roseberry Handicap with Crowned Eagle, not forgetting Another Batt’s Grp 3 win in Turkey in October 2017” reflected Fisher.
“We’re starting to gather a really good group of older horses to take our ownership group to the big days, and still have seven two‐year‐olds this season, with only one having hit the track to date, so obviously have six debutants to look forward to. There are a lot of nice backend types among them who we hope will make up into lovely horses in the future.”
Crowned Eagle has developed into a real flag‐bearer this season and he has already surpassed the relatively cheap fee that he was purchased for last October, securing over £63,000 in prize money in his six subsequent starts, with the gelding in line to take home over £300,000 if successful on Saturday afternoon, where all of his 10 owners are set to be in attendance.
“Crowned Eagle is turning out to be the steal of the 2017 October Horses In Training Sale. We picked him up for just 25,000gns and having done our homework, we were amazed to secure him so cheaply and were just over the moon.
“Marco Botti has done brilliant with him, he’s now progressed from a mark of 95 to his current rating of 107 since we purchased him. The Ebor, being such a valuable race, has long been the target. He just got chinned in the Old Newton Cup at Haydock last month and he’d also been narrowly beaten here at York at the Dante Meeting back in May, conceding weight on both occasions, and the subsequent form has worked out exceptionally well.”
“We haven’t really looked past Saturday at this stage, but he’s going to be forced to step into Listed/Group company either way. He has the heart of a lion and is still on the upgrade, with good form at York and his overall profile is rock‐solid.”
While all of the owners and Fisher will be in attendance at York, Austin himself will be preoccupied by the small matter of Southampton’s Premier League home fixture against Leicester on Saturday afternoon. Happily, as long as the race goes off on schedule, it might just slot nicely into the window for a sneaky half‐time peek if the 4G reception holds up in the dressing room.
