'We breed these horses to compete in the best races' - Juddmonte's Item continues banner week for titan operation

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The unbeaten Item continued a banner week for Juddmonte and Frankel with a comfortable win in the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York.

Trained by Andrew Balding, the colt was the second York Group scorer in the space of two days for the renowned family. Legacy Link, Frankel's niece out of his winning sister Chiasma, laid down her Oaks claims with a gritty win in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes on Wednesday. 

In defeating fellow Frankel colt Action by two and three-quarter lengths, Item is now as short as 6-1 to emulate Juddmonte's previous Derby heroes Quest For Fame, Commander In Chief and Workforce.

Juddmonte's racing manager Barry Mahon said: “We’ve won a trial, so let’s hope. We want to go to the Derby, and Juddmonte is there to compete at the top table. We breed these horses to compete in the best races, and the Derby is one of the best races in the world."

Item, who won both his starts as a juvenile last year, is also notably bred on the same Frankel-Lope De Vega cross as current Derby favourite Benvenuto Cellini, that one being a son of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Just A Game Stakes heroine Newspaperofrecord. 

Capla Temptress: Grade 1 winner and dam of ItemCredit: Michael Burns

The 118th individual Group/Graded winner for his illustrious sire, Item is the second Group winner and fifth scorer from six runners bred on the above nick. 

Item's dam, Capla Temptress, was a Grade 1 winner when landing the 2017 Natalma Stakes for Marco Botti and owners Team Valor. She was subsequently acquired by Juddmonte and ran a few times for the operation towards the end of her racing career. 

The 11-year-old was already the dam of a stakes winner in Temptable, a Kingman filly who landed the Listed Prix Matchem at Saint-Cloud last October for Francis Graffard. She has since switched to Bill Mott's stables in the US. 

Capla Temptress has a two-year-old St Mark's Basilica filly called Tympana and a yearling filly by Dark Angel, while she visited Frankel again this year. 

The following race, the Listed Westow Stakes, saw Pinatubo colt Dickensian pick up a deserved first black-type win. A homebred for the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, the three-year-old had placed in the Windsor Castle, Molecomb, Roses and Flying Childers Stakes in a busy campaign last term. 

A ninth individual black-type winner for the Darley sire, the Kevin Ryan-trained colt is out of the Charm Spirit mare Yourtimeisnow. A 120,000gns Tattersalls Book 1 purchase, she went on to win the Dick Poole Fillies' Stakes for Roger Varian. 

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