Amo Racing strike in Irish Flat season opener again as Arizona Blaze makes taking debut

Amo Racing struck with a subsequent Group 1 winner in the opening 5f maiden at the Curragh last year and the emerging owners took the race again as Arizona Blaze got the better of a sustained duel with Rowdy Yeats.

Buccanero Fuerte triumphed in the opening race of the Irish Flat season a year ago before going on finish third in the Coventry and land the Railway and Phoenix Stakes, and Amo Racing's distinctive purple silks were in the winner's enclosure aboard another Adrian Murray-trained juvenile this time.

Arizona Blaze, a colt by first-season sire Sergei Prokofiev, was sent off the 5-4 favourite and eventually exerted his class on the runner-up by a length and a quarter. He was ridden by Amo Racing's newly retained jockey David Egan, with the team having parted ways with Rossa Ryan and Kevin Stott in the past.

"It was very smooth," Egan said. "He jumped and travelled and was the ultimate professional today, so it was a great job by the team. Initially on the ground he took a while to find his footing and it was probably a bit of a shock to the system for him, but the last 100 yards were his best.

Arizona Blaze: winner under David EganCredit: Patrick McCann

"He got in a good battle and I really loved the tenacity he showed to outbattle the other horse and he galloped out well to the line. It was a good performance. I've spent the last three months in America but I flew home for two weeks and went down to Mullingar to sit on all the horses.

"He was one that stood out. The team's got a lot of nice two-year-olds and he's one of them, for sure."

On his new role with the operation headed by Kia Joorabchian, who has the Champion Stakes hero King Of Steel to look forward to among many others as the season gathers apace in England and Ireland, he added: "It's going to be amazing. They're a tremendous team with a great bunch of horses and I'm just very lucky to be in the position I'm in."

Murray was out of luck at Royal Ascot with Buccanero Fuerte last year but struck with the 150-1 Norfolk winner Valiant Force, and will be working back from the meeting with Arizona Blaze.

"He's a very nice horse with loads of improvement and hopefully we can build on this," the trainer said. "The further he went the better he got. We'll be aiming to go to Royal Ascot and we will see where we go in the meantime. He'll improve on better ground." 

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