Alice Haynes' stable star Cairo, who finished a career-best third at Royal Ascot in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) June 17 at odds of 100-1, is set to spend the rest of the summer in the United States with some ambitious targets on his agenda.
The 5-year-old son of Lane's End stallion Quality Road gave his Kuwaiti owner Refai Alghraiban a great thrill when beaten just 1 3/4 lengths behind Docklands in the opening race of the royal meeting, when he had group 1 winners like Notable Speech, Carl Spackler, and Lead Artist in arrears.
After that effort, Cairo was raised to a career-best British Horseracing Authority rating of 114, 2 pounds above his previous highest mark, which he earned after finishing second to his then-stablemate Paddington in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1) in 2023, when trained by Aidan O'Brien.
Haynes said of the Royal Ascot run: "We changed our tactics on Cairo where many people perhaps thought we were going to make the running. He's a prominent runner but not a front-runner usually, and we thought we'd ride him quietly and it paid off, as the first three home in the race were hold-up horses."
Cairo has entries at the Newmarket July festival and Glorious Goodwood, but his trainer said: "I think we'll go to America next. There are two grade 1s over a mile and 10 furlongs on fast ground which will suit him. One of the races is the Arlington Million at Colonial Downs on Aug. 9.
"Charlie Appleby won it last year with Nations Pride when it was a small field so that may suit him very well."
Beyond that, in September, Cairo is under consideration for the Sept. 6 Mint Millions Invitational Stakes (G3T) at Kentucky Downs which is worth $2.5 million, including bonuses.
