OTI Racing has announced the acquisition of a European stayer it hopes will be a part of its 2014 Spring Racing Carnival arsenal. Renew, a son of Dansili who is about to turn four in Northern Hemisphere time, is now a part of the Simon O’Donnell and Terry Henderson-managed ownership group.
Henderson told RSN’s Racing Ahead he was excited about acquiring the entire, who is trained by Marco Botti.
“He’s been very progressive during his three-year-old year with Marco,” Henderson said. “He’s won three of his six starts (with Botti) and certainly is on the way up.”
Out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Hold Me Love Me, Renew started his career with Aidan O’Brien in Ireland, but failed to feature in the placings at his first two starts.
After being sold, he joined Botti and is yet to be unplaced in six subsequent starts. His latest outing produced a victory over Group 1 winner Wigmore Hall in the Listed Godolphin Stakes (2400m) at Newmarket on 27 September.
Henderson said Renew would have two runs in Dubai in March before returning to England to be set for the Melbourne spring via what has become the traditional path.
“He’s going to go to the (Dubai) Gold Cup,” Henderson said. “He’ll go through a Group 3 race at Meydan early in March and he’ll then head off to the Gold Cup at the end of the month.
“He’ll just have a two-race campaign there and, as we’ve seen with these horses that race in Dubai, you’ve got to then be quite gentle with them when they get back to Europe and then start and build them up to have them ready for races like the Kergorlay or the York Cup later in the August.”