00:00When Grade 1 winner Choysia is offered at the Sceptre Sessions of the Tattersall's December
00:04Mare Sale, she'll become the only daughter of Knight of Thunder to have won at the very
00:08highest level ever offered at public auction.
00:12I've come here to her trainers Simon and Ed Crisford who have nurtured her fantastic
00:15season to find out how the preparations have been going for her eagerly anticipated sale.
00:21Well, Simon, Choysia was looking great this morning.
00:25Just talk us through what she'll do between now and the sale.
00:28Well, I think between now and the sale she'll have a reduced level of intensity training.
00:35So we want her to let down a little bit for the sale.
00:37So she'll have some treadmill work.
00:40She will be sort of kept active on a daily basis and she'll be doing normal training,
00:45but you know, she won't be doing any fast work.
00:48And what a phenomenal year she's had taking her form to the next level really on her travels.
00:54Talk us through her season and just where that improvement's come from.
00:58Well, she's surprised us hugely because she started off at a lowly level and then crept
01:04into some very nice handicaps and you know, she won a listed race at Haydog and it was the
01:11first time that she sort of hit stakes level performance and we felt off the back of that,
01:17we should give her the chance to see how she would train in Dubai and aim at the Group
01:222 races there, the Cape Verde and the Balanchine.
01:26And she really surprised us when we got her to Dubai.
01:29She absolutely loved training on an oval flat track.
01:35And she was an absolute revelation.
01:38You know, she cat hopped in both races, the Cape Verde and the Balanchine, utterly dominant
01:45and her training continued to improve.
01:48And we felt that she deserved to have a chance in North America.
01:51We took her to Kentucky to see how she would perform against the very, very talented and
01:59good North American fillies.
02:01And of course she won that race, which was fantastic.
02:04And it proved that what she had achieved in Dubai was absolutely of no fluke whatsoever.
02:10And she's continued to have a very good summer campaign actually, but we decided not to race
02:24her back in Europe, but she did travel back to Europe and trained here and then went back
02:29to Saratoga.
02:31She should have finished third in the Diana.
02:32Yes.
02:33Just touched off in that race and of course she was placed in her last grade one effort.
02:39So she's been a thoroughly consistent and admirable race mare.
02:44And she's very honest, genuine.
02:49And she's kept improving all along, so we couldn't be more happy with her.
02:59She must be very straightforward in terms of her constitution to travel and take that sort
03:04of regime.
03:05She thrives for it.
03:06Yes.
03:07I mean, she's quite feisty in her box, you know, when she's really, really well, she gets
03:13herself very, very feisty, but she's a super filly to train, very straightforward, very easy.
03:21And she's done nothing but continue to improve.
03:24And I think with her physique, she'll let down into a lovely mare.
03:28She stands over a lot of ground.
03:31She, you know, she goes back in her family to Sheikh Mohammed's great, one of his great
03:38foundation mares, Oh So Sharp.
03:40And there's a lot of Oh So Sharp in this filly.
03:42I remember her, but obviously with her pedigree, the extraordinary thing, the unique thing about
03:49this filly is that she will be the only grade one winning daughter of Knight of Thunder ever
03:57presented at sale.
03:59So it's a unique moment, not only for this filly, but for Knight of Thunder too.
04:03It really is.
04:04And he needs no introduction.
04:06From your experience of the Knight of Thunder stock, Simon, is she quite typical of them?
04:12I think she is.
04:13Yeah.
04:14I think she, yes.
04:15I think, you know, we've got a few Knight of Thunders and, you know, I always think they
04:20sort of start off a little bit slowly, but they continue to improve and just get better
04:24and better with time.
04:26And this filly has always been very sound and, you know, she's taken her racing very, very
04:32well.
04:33She's won eight of her 23 starts and obviously she's a group one winner and she's a multiple
04:41stakes winner.
04:42And as you say, she responded so well to those flat oval tracks and she handles or thrives
04:47for the fast conditions, but she's pretty versatile.
04:50She's gone well on softer conditions as well.
04:52I mean, we've tried everything.
04:53Yeah.
04:54She's been up hills, down hills, round corners.
04:56She's done everything on soft ground, firm ground, but she's always, she's never
05:02really disappointed us.
05:03No.
05:04When, when she hasn't performed well, it's been our fault, not hers.
05:07Yeah.
05:08So she's been an absolute pleasure and a real joy to have in the stable.
05:14And obviously we'd be very sorry to see her go.
05:16But the time is now right.
05:19And I think she'll let down into a fantastic mare.
05:22And of course, she's still got, you know, racing ahead of her if that's what people wanted
05:27to do.
05:28There's a lot of lucrative races internationally.
05:30Yeah.
05:31I mean, she's sound.
05:32She's a very sound filly and she can race on.
05:34But I think, you know, on balance, she'll be a super mare for somebody.
05:38Was it quite a difficult decision to decide?
05:40Well, I think so.
05:41Mr. Nabuda is a very enthusiastic owner and he's had horses for a long time.
05:46He obviously owned a very good race mare called Hibaya, who won the fillies mile.
05:51And, but this fillies exceeded all of our expectations.
05:57And maybe now is the right time for her to be presented for sale.
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