'All systems go' for globe-trotting Halford

Expensive purchase Callender went some way to returning the outlay of owner Zhang Yuesheng when making a winning debut for the Chinese based owner and new trainer Michael Halford, in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Premier Nursery at Navan today.

Halford and Zhang have teamed up successfully with Listed winner Yulong Baobei and indeed Callender was purchased following his fifth placed finish in the Windsor Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, in a race where Yulong Baobei finished seventh.

Callender was purchased, from trainer Patrick Prendergast and owner Richard Barnes, at that Royal Ascot Sale for 120,000GBP and was today making a winning debut for Halford, under jockey Shane Foley.

Halford wasn’t present having travelled to Asia where his and Zhang’s recent American recruit Wild Dude lines up in the Keeneland Korea Sprint in Seoul on September 11 but following today’s win, Foley stated “he did it well and had a lovely run in Ascot and we were lucky enough to get him after that.

“The owner is a nice man and a big owner and has a couple of nice two-year-olds.

“Michael (Halford) is in China at the moment with the owner for a few days and Wild Dude is going to run in Korea so it's all systems go at the moment.”

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Gary Carson