Month: December 2020

Deirdre To Visit Galileo In 2021

A new direction in the extraordinary odyssey of the Japanese mare Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}-Reizend {Jpn, by Special Week {Jpn}) began on Monday when the 6-year-old left her adopted home of Newmarket to begin her stud career in Ireland. Her first mating is planned to be with Coolmore’s champion sire Galileo (Ire).

Bred by Northern Farm and raced by Toji Morita, Deirdre’s first three seasons of racing were restricted largely to Japan, where she won five races, including the G1 Shuka Sho. She also took third in the G1 Dubai Turf on her first start outside her native country. Following her return visit to the Dubai World Cup meeting in 2019, Deirdre travelled on to Hong Kong and then to Newmarket, which has subsequently remained her base for an ambitious international campaign.

On her second start in Britain she became the first Japanese-trained horse to win a Group 1 contest in Europe when triumphing in the Nassau S. at Goodwood. Since then, she has run in Ireland, Saudi Arabia, France and, finally, Bahrain last month.

Yoshi Hashida, whose father Mitsuru has trained Deirdre throughout her career, told TDN, “She is going to the next phase but the moments we spent in Newmarket and around the world will be the memories we cherish forever. She will visit Galileo and probably stay in Ireland for two or three years before returning to Japan.”

Throughout her lengthy stay in England at Abington Place, Deirdre has been accompanied by her daily rider Yuta Komiyama, who has become as well known on Newmarket Heath as his famous mount.

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Bellocq, Leggett Selected to Hall of Fame’s Joe Hirsch Roll of Honor

Renowned Eclipse Award-winning cartoonist Pierre “Peb” Bellocq and the late Eclipse Award-winning writer William Leggett have been selected to the National Museum of Racing’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor.

Bellocq, 94, was born in France in 1926. At age 19, the French racing journal France Courses gave him national exposure by publishing one of his cartoons of a jockey. Bellocq signed the drawing as “Peb,” a signature that became his lifelong moniker. By 1954, Bellocq’s work had achieved international acclaim and he was contracted by Laurel Park owner John D. Schapiro to do drawings for the prestigious Washington, D.C. International Stakes. Bellocq decided to relocate to the United States and in 1955 accepted an offer to work as the staff cartoonist for the Morning Telegraph and its sister paper, the Daily Racing Form, a job he held until December 2008.

“My father was a jump jockey in the south of France and my grandfather was a trainer. His father was a breeder. I was among horses right from the start,” Bellocq said.

Along with his work for the Form, Bellocq has been commissioned by numerous racetracks to produce vibrant murals capturing the flavor of the sport. His large-scale cartoon collages became fixtures at tracks such as Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Arlington, Oaklawn, Aqueduct, and The Meadowlands.

Leggett, who was born in Saratoga Springs, NY in 1931, became one of racing’s most celebrated and respected writers during his 30-year career at Sports Illustrated. He spent time as president of both the National Turf Writers Association and the New York Turf Writers Association and won an Eclipse Award for his racing writing in 1979.

“He had a tremendous knowledge of Thoroughbred racing,” said the late Whitney Tower, who worked with Leggett at Sports Illustrated for nearly 20 years. “He was an exceptional man, a great talent, and he contributed a lot to the success of Sports Illustrated. He knew his way around. The trainers respected him. He was very popular.”

In 1993, Leggett was one of the eight inaugural members of the Saratoga Springs Sports Hall of Fame. He died in 1996 in New York City at the age of 64.

The post Bellocq, Leggett Selected to Hall of Fame’s Joe Hirsch Roll of Honor appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Beauty Generation Retired

Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock {Aus}–Stylish Bel {Aus}, by Bel Esprit {Aus}), a two-time Hong Kong Horse of the Year and only horse to surpass the HK$100 mark in career earnings, has been retired after his fifth in Sunday’s G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile. He will live out his days at Living Legends in Victoria, Australia, alongside other Hong Kong retirees Silent Witness (Aus), Mr Stunning (Aus) and California Memory, among others.

Bred by Nearco Stud Ltd., Beauty Generation was purchased for NZ$60,000 by Kylie Bax’s Hermes Syndications from the Highden Park draft at the NZB National Yearling Sale in 2014 and was sent to race in Australia. Trained by Anthony Cummings as Montaigne, the bay gelding won two of seven starts, including a runner-up effort in the G1 Rosehill Guineas, prior to his purchase by the Kwok Family.

Prepared in Hong Kong by John Moore, Beauty Generation was third to his late stablemate Rapper Dragon (Aus) (Street Boss) in the 2017 BMW Hong Kong Derby and set (and still holds) a track record for 2200 metres, but was reinvented as a 1400-1600m horse for the 2017-2018 season. He carried Derek Leung to a 15-2 upset in the 2017 G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile and Zac Purton was in the irons when wiring the field in the 2018 G1 Champions Mile.

The latter race was the start of an 18-month stretch where nothing could come close to Beauty Generation. In that time he amassed 10 consecutive wins, going back-to-back in the Hong Kong Mile (see below) and the Champions Mile and he peaked on a domestic rating of 138 following a first-up success in the G3 Celebration Cup H. Third in search of a three-peat in the 2019 Hong Kong Mile, he retained his zest for racing to post a second score in the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) last February.  The last of his 18 local victories came in the G2 Chairman’s Trophy in April. David Hayes trained Beauty Generation for three starts this season following Moore’s retirement.

“I knew it may be on the table,” said Purton, who rode the champion 28 times. “It’s a bittersweet day. It’s a sad end. He’s been the best horse for me in my career. I’m certainly going to miss him. He was brave again [in Sunday’s Mile]  and wherever he may go in the world, I’m sure I’ll go and visit him in his paddock one day.”

 

WATCH: Beauty Generation defends his title in the 2018 Hong Kong Mile

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