THE RACERS REVISITED #4: MOSTO VERDE 

Courtesy Carrot Club

Mosto Verde is a colt by the Japan Derby winner, Tanino Gimlet, out of Easy Lover. Tanino Gimlet was sired by Brian's Time (Jaguar's father), which means Roberto and Hail To Reason blood. The damsire was Crystal Palace (winner of the Prix du Jockey Club - the French Derby, in effect), and going back further on Tanino Gimlet's dam line brings in the legendary Sea-Bird, who won the Epsom Derby and the L'Arc de Triomphe. 

Easy Lover is actually quite an interesting horse, as she is registered as Canadian, but had a successful racing career on both turf and dirt in Chile (13-6-1 from 24 starts) before her era as a broodmare began. Some of her children have put in remarkable performances, so by mixing her blood with that of Yuzo Tanimizu's star stallion (Vodka is without doubt the star mare to come from his stable), it should give a formidable combination in terms of strength and speed, at least on paper.

Looking at the bloodlines, it's easy to see where Easy Lover gets her pace from, with Alwasmi (by Northern Dancer) as her father, and Bustino (a St Leger winner) and Highclere (one of HM the Queen's finest racehorses, taking 1000 Guineas honours as a youngster) being in his DNA make-up. On her dam side, In Reality and Foggy Note won a large number of races between them, and Northern Dancer features again if we go back a fifth generation.

The Saito Stable at Miho Training Centre have been working away slowly on this playful little character, letting him develop at a gentle pace. As such, an eighth in his one and only race so far is no big deal, as it was classed as an outing simply for gaining experience. Although his record stands at 0-0-0-1, you can expect him to dominate the turf one day.