The European odyssey with Asfoora will continue into another year for Henry Dwyer, who has revealed the reason she has stayed on the other side of the world.
He is realistic about where Asfoora sits in terms of Australian sprinters, even though she won the Cartier Award for Europe’s champion sprinter in 2025.
“She is really a 1000-1100m horse over here and couldn’t be competitive with our best sprinters at 1200m,” Dwyer said.
“They breed stayers over there, and it is weaker at the sprinting end of the program, so she has an advantage.”
“But the reality is that there aren’t enough races for her here in Australia at 1000m and 1100m. In terms of Group 1s there is only the Lightning Stakes, Moir Stakes, Galaxy and Oakleigh Plate at the shorter trips.”
“She couldn’t run in the Galaxy or Oakleigh Plate now because they are handicaps, so it wasn’t worth coming back.”
Asfoora ran third in the Oakleigh Plate and a couple of fourths in Galaxys, but could match it with the best at the Group 1 level over 1200m in Australia.
However, in Europe, she has won the King Charles Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2024 and last year added the Nunthorpe Stakes at York and Prix De L’abbaye at Longchamp on Arc day, leading to her Champion sprinter title.
It is a resume that will probably see her go to a stallion, like Lope de Vega, Frankel or Kingman at the end of her 2026 campaign.
“That would be thinking, but we think she can get another win or two over there before that,” Dwyer said. “There are more races for her over there.”
“She is back in work but won’t race until May.”
“She will start in the Palace House Stakes [on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile during Guineas weekend] and then run in the Temple Stakes at Haydock before Royal Ascot again.”
“We would only run in the King Charles at Royal Ascot and then maybe the July Cup at Newmarket.”
