Bone Marra - 'The phone has been hopping' - new syndicate face 'very tough' decision over interest in debut winner heading to Royal Ascot - Racing Post 29.5.25
- PV Team
- May 29
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1
An up-and-coming syndicate is weighing up a high-stakes decision of keeping what could be its first Royal Ascot runner or taking the riches of selling its star juvenile abroad after a remarkable debut win.
The Ollie Sangster-trained Bone Marra made a successful start for owners Pompey Ventures at Wolverhampton on Tuesday despite blowing the start and being detached by a handful of lengths, before flying home to win by three-quarters of a length.
A tilt at the Coventry or Windsor Castle Stakes and taking on Flat racing's powerhouses at the royal meeting next month is in the pipeline for Bone Marra as it stands. However, the lure of selling him could be too hard to refuse, according to Pompey Ventures' founding partner Owen Haly.
"Ultimately the head rules over the heart in this, but you're blessed to have these sorts of problems and it'd be very tough to say what we'd prefer," he said. "To have a two-year-old runner at the biggest Flat meeting of the season would be massive, but we need to think about whether the offer is the right thing to do compared with how we value him.
"How much you would pay for a Royal Ascot runner nowadays is a question that also creeps in. We're very excited, but the phone has been hopping and Ollie's been getting asked about him from the likes of Hong Kong and other places."
He added: "If nothing comes through he'll be ours for Royal Ascot. He'd probably be our first runner on the card in basically our second year, which would be some achievement, especially with a two-year-old."
Should Bone Marra remain with Pompey Ventures and head to the Coventry, he would be the syndicate's breakthrough Royal Ascot runner. If not, it will be narrow Lincoln runner-up Oliver Show in the Royal Hunt Cup or Buckingham Palace Stakes.
However, Haly is still getting over Bone Marra's 25-1 shock win under Nicola Currie and cannot believe the position his burgeoning syndicate is already in.
"It was certainly unexpected," he added. "We thought he had some sort of ability but he'd never popped out of the stalls before and made up a ridiculous amount of lengths in the home straight. Nicola is a star for us too and criminally underrated.
"He'd only done a couple of bits of group cantering beforehand and now we'll really see what's under the bonnet. David Byrne sourced him and did say he'd be very smart – he proved his judgement is top class."
