International Horse Profile: Aspect Island

Scouting Report for Aspect Island

As a Gredley Family runner trained by James Owen, Aspect Island represents the same connections as Nashville Derby (G3) winner Wimbledon Hawkeye (Turf). Aspect Island hasn’t been operating at the same level yet, but he exits his best effort so far, and he’s bred for success in the sprint division. 

His full brother is the very talented sprinter Tasleet, who was a bit unlucky not to take home a Group 1 trophy. Tasleet’s biggest win came in the 2017 Duke of York (G2), but he placed in three major sprints that season, including a neck loss in the Diamond Jubilee (G1) at Royal Ascot. Tasleet gained compensation as a sire through his champion son, Bradsell. 

Aspect Island and Tasleet descend from the family of world-class sprinter Battaash, a four-time Group 1 star, and his multiple Group 3-winning brother, The Antarctic. 

With a pedigree like that, Aspect Island might not have been expected to begin his career at seven furlongs. The market ignored him in his first two starts, and he ran up to his odds. He was 100-1 when fading to eighth in a red-hot Newmarket maiden during the July Festival. (Godolphin’s highly-regarded Distant Storm and Aidan O’Brien’s smart prospect Constitution River fought out the photo-finish.) In a similar maiden at Glorious Goodwood, Aspect Island was a green, disorganized ninth as an 80-1 shot behind O’Brien’s Isaac Newton. 

But those races did furnish an education in a less pressurized context than the shorter maidens, and Aspect Island began to get the hang of things. Dispatched at 11-1 in a more realistic spot at Kempton, he set the pace on the Polytrack. He was still trying to figure out how to coordinate his legs on the backstretch, but held his position until the 33-1 Lord Britain wore him down. 

Aspect Island reveled on the drop six furlongs, and nursery company, to romp on the front end at Yarmouth. The 4-1 chance might have had more of a tussle on his hands if the favorite hadn’t stumbled badly at the start. With jockey Pat Cosgrave getting the fractions absolutely right, Aspect Island drew off by 7 1/2 lengths on soft going. 

Up in class but down in trip for the five-furlong Cornwallis (G3 ), the son of Showcasing took a leap forward to place third as a 20-1 shot. Aspect Island had the speed to chase the leader in the five-furlong dash, and despite changing his legs in Newmarket’s Dip, he was carrying himself more professionally than in his earlier races. Briefly striking the front, he was nabbed late by Beckford’s Folly and Brussels in juvenile course-record time. 

Owen has recently said that Aspect Island is “getting quicker every run,” with the scope to develop further next year. His progressive profile suggests that he could outperform his odds in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.