Attraction all set for titanic clash http://www.racingpost.co.uk/news/rp_std ... ge=latest3
by Robert Pratt
ATTRACTION limbered up for a mouthwatering clash with the unbeaten Silent Witness as she enjoyed a workout at Newmarket racecourse on Sunday.
Ridden by Kevin Darley, Mark Johnston's four-time Group 1 winner, who made history last year by becoming the first filly to complete the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas double, looked fit and well covering a mile with a stable companion.
The lead horse took her along at a good clip before she eased to the front at the furlong pole.
She strode home well with her ears pricked and it took the jockey all his time to pull the powerfully-built filly up.
Plans to bid for the Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes at Newbury next month have been shelved in favour of chasing the £1.3 million prize money on offer in the inaugural Asian Mile Challenge.
The new concept takes in the Champions Mile in Hong Kong, worth more than £300,000 to the winner, on May 14 and the Yasuda Kinen in Japan on June 5, which offers a £465,000 first prize.
A winner of both mile Group 1 contests collects a further 1m bonus (around £525,000).
Attraction is due to fly out to Hong Kong on Thursday.
After watching the gallop, Johnston said: "It took a while to pull her up. The gallop was just perfect and Kevinwas delighted with her.
"She's very heavy which is quite astounding. She last raced off 478 kilos and on Friday night she was 498 kilos, so you would say she would need to lose a bit of weight - she will have done today - but looking at her that wouldn't necessarily be the case.
"You can see the horse is very fit or as fit as you'd expect her to be two weeks before her first race.
"That looked a perfect gallop for her.
"She was intended to be ready a fortnight behind last yearand then suddenly we got a little bit of a panic on with transport arrangements for Hong Kong that left us a week short.
"We thought we were absolutely spot on. We were going to gallop her on Tuesday and then she'd have had time for one more spin if necessary before the Lockinge.
"So as soon as the Hong Kong thing came into the reckoning we had to pull everything forward a little bit and we thought we'd have to get a racecourse gallop into her.
"If she doesn't win in Hong Kong she'llcome home and we'll go back to Plan A, which was the Queen Anne and maybe the Falmouth and so on.
"If she wins in Hong Kong she will certainly go to Japan - as there's a million dollar bonus to win both."
Attraction requires a fast surface to show her best form and Johnston continued: "We shouldn't really have a worry with the ground in Hong Kong and as I understand it, it is always firm in Japan."
And of taking on local champion Silent Witness, the Middleham trainer said: "The clashwith Silent Witness reminds me of coming here for the Falmouth with Attraction last year on an unbeaten run (where she was beaten by Soviet Song) and it's not a nice position to be in.
"I wouldn't want to have a horse who has won 15 races at five furlongs, one at six and one at seven going for an unbeaten run against top milers. But that's not to say he's not a magnificent horse.
"In Europe I've always said that anything that's in front of Attraction in a race is going too fast but that might not be the case with Silent Witness.
"But I don't think the race looks any tougher than the Lockinge."