Classy sprinter has Seven Barrows and Kempton workouts before Riyadh return

Happy Romance, who ran two screamers in the Middle East last year, has connections optimistic she is nearing that form before she soon returns to the region after a prep that included a trip to Nicky Henderson's star-studded jumps yard last week.

Trained by Richard Hannon in Wiltshire for the McMurray family, Happy Romance finished third in a valuable Group 3 at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in February and backed that up with a fine second in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan on Dubai World Cup night a month later.

The five-year-old, who exercised at Henderson's historic Seven Barrows base in Lambourn on Thursday, has those races on her agenda again and may have had excuses last summer, when her British performances did not match her efforts abroad.

"She's putting her work in for Saudi at the moment and also went for a gallop at Kempton recently," said Ollie McMurray. "We've been invited to Saudi again, so the plan would be that race – the 1351 Turf Sprint – and then the Al Quoz.

"They were her best races of the year, but after Dubai she went really lame and it was a niggling thing. We moved her from Everleigh to Herridge, Richard's other yard, and she didn't take well to it.

"Her form dropping off correlated with that move, but she's now back at Everleigh and looked really well in that racecourse gallop. Moving stables was no-one's fault; she moved because Richard had this machine for their joints at his other yard."

Ollie McMurray (right) with his father Ray at Newbury in 2020

Happy Romance has been a star for McMurray and his family, winning the Super Sprint as a juvenile in 2020 along with a brace of Group 3s.

"The form of her Saudi race was ridiculous," he added.

"She crossed the line two necks behind Songline, who went back to Japan and won one of the biggest mile races there, and Casa Creed, who chinned us for second, went back to America and won Grade 1s over six furlongs and a mile.

"They look after you incredibly well in Saudi with hotels and shuttle buses to the track each morning, and she enjoys top of the ground. The faster the better for Happy. We'd be sat here freezing our behinds off at this time of year and you might not get her ground in Britain until early summer.

"She'll get her ground and the prize-money is brilliant, so it's great to get an invite."

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