Stable lad takes ‘win or bust’ gamble to run bargain horse in £1.1m Queen Elizabeth II Stakes

Amedeo Dal Pos has staked all the prize-money his horse Prague earned from his latest win to contest the mile race at British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday

A stable lad has taken a ‘win or bust’ high stakes gamble with a horse that cost him just £10,500.

Amedeo Dal Pas, head lad to Newmarket trainer Dylan Cunha, took a shine to the former Aidan O’Brien unraced colt Prague at last year’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-training sale.

As a son of super sire Galileo, previously owned by the Coolmore partners, he might have been expected to a six figure sum. Dal Pas too thought the colt would be way over his budget but managed to buy Prague for a bid of 10,000gns.

The three-year-old made a 40-1 winning debut in June and last time out captured the Group 2 Joel Stakes at Newmarket. He has now won over £114,000.

Now Dal Pos has taken an even bigger punt by spending the first prize-money from his latest victory to meet the supplementary fee to add him to the field for the £1.1 million Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, one of the highlights of Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday.

A victory in the mile championship race would make Dal Pos a paper millionaire but if the colt does not finish in the first three, he won’t see his £70,000 again.

“It’s a massive gamble for him, isn’t it?,” said Cunha. “If the horse wins he is worth a few million being a Galileo colt, but if he loses the whole £70,000 is gone and the whole horse’s value is gone.

“But Amedeo has confidence in the horse. He rides him every day and when he galloped him on Saturday he had the biggest smile on his face. It’s all in the stars now.”

Dal Pos rode winners as an amateur in his native Italy and since coming to Newmarket has worked for John Gosden and Ed Dunlop joining South African Cunha when he took out a licence in 2022. His wife works for Marco Botti.

He bid for Prague, who was previously with Aidan O’Brien but never ran, at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training sale 12 months ago not expecting to get him for just 10,000gns. He has now won £114,000.

“We’ve been discussing this every single day and had the vets in to check him this morning.

“The horse is on the up, he is going to get his ground. You may never get the chance in your life again. I think you’ve got to go for it.

“I look at it like this. You pay £10,000 for the horse. You can now say you paid £80,000 for the horse and it’s running in a Group 1. That’s not a bad little purchase.

“There have been a few offers which he has resisted. There is a back-up plan. If he runs well and wins it’s all paid off. If runs badly he is entered in the Hong Kong Mile on December 8 so he could go for that.”