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I was reading in the "i" today that Gerard Butler is opening a “satellite" stable in Chicago on Wednesday.
Mark Johnston is sending "Jo Le Taxi" out there to be trained by Butler.
The article is here:- http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/raci … 76238.html
It will be interesting to see if any other trainers decide to follow suit to seek out better prize money.
Regards
Butler isn’t having too much success in the UK at the moment. Let’s hope his satellite enterprise does better
Butler has been sending horses abroad quite a bit in recent years – his filly Pachattack ran in Grade 1 races at Arlington and Woodbine last autumn and picked up sixty grand by winning a non graded stakes race at Woodbine afterwards.
Dansant, in the last two years, has run at Santa Anita, Deauville, Dundalk and veliefendi (Turkey).
He was also one of the first to try to buy horses during the autumn specifically to run at the Dubai Carnival. In October 2003, he paid £60,000 to get Boston Lodge from a premier claimer at Pontefract, which I suspect is still a record high claim in this country. The horse was twice second and twice third at Nad Al Sheba a few months later to justify the price.
So this latest move is a logical extension of what he’s done in the past.
AP
A decade or so ago Butler was having 60 odd winners a season in the UK and winning races like the Eclipse and Morny (France).
In recent seasons UK winners have been down to about 20.
It makes sense for him to show some enterprise and cast his net wide and look for opportunities across the world.
He did well with Pachattak at Woodbine.How much does it cost to transport and race a horse over there? She ran down the field in a G3 at Newmarket yesterday, although the distance seemed shy of her best.
For the Group 1 races at Arlington and Woodbine the tracks pay a generous travel incentive to get European runners across. For an enterprise such as this Gerard’s owners will be self-paying but sharing a pallet will keep costs down. In addition Arlington is one of the few tracks to offer "private" quarantine so this makes life easier and cheaper for him.
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