Bet to win.
Lingfield 1.0 Miquelon – win bet.
Bet to win.
Lingfield 1.0 Miquelon – win bet.
The 100th edition of the Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe belonged to German contender Torquator Tasso, who stunned horseplayers at odds of 71-1. The race was the first time rider Rene Piechulek had contested the Arc, and gave trainer Marcel Weiss his first win in the race. Weiss hung out his shingle just two years ago.
Heavy rains in Paris Saturday night changed the going of the turf to the advantage of the 4-year-old colt, who sat well off the early pace and closed through the Longchamp stretch, hitting his best gear in the very last furlong, passing Tarnawa and Hurricane Lane just before the wire. Adayar was fourth.
The win was the third for a German horse in the Arc, after Danedream in 2011 and Star Appeal in 1975.
Torquator Tasso was Horse of the Year in his native Germany last year, and prepped for the Arc with a winning effort in the Grosser Preis von Baden last month.
“I have no words. I can't believe I won,” Weiss told French media. “I started to think about the Arc during the winter because it had already shown class at three years old. He behaved very well this year, winning a Group 2 and a Group 1. But given the range of this 100th edition, we would have already been delighted to be fourth or fifth. The terrain helped him. He was able to attack on the outside as we had planned. I have been training for two years in Mulheim (Germany) but I have been working for Gestüt Auenquelle for many years. The owners of Torquator Tasso have turned down important offers for the horse and I am delighted to be able to train him. He's a star. We will discuss next week his future program, which will perhaps pass through Japan.”
The Arc, contested at 1 1/2 miles, is a Win and You're In race for the Breeders' Cup Turf. Though it remains unclear whether Torquator Tasso will come to Del Mar for the race, Racing Post reported that Tarnawa, last year's winner, could return to defend her title.
The post German Runner Torquator Tasso Shocks In Arc With 71-1 Odds, Gutsy Closing Kick appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
TIMONIUM, MD – A yearling sale season punctuated by strong demand throughout the market makes a stop in Maryland when the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale begins its two-day run in Timonium Monday afternoon. With 200 yearlings catalogued, the abbreviated first session of the auction gets underway at 1 p.m. A further 314 yearlings are catalogued for the second session, which begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Ahead of the sale, a mixture of end-users, pinhookers and bloodstock agents were on the grounds on a balmy fall day at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Sunday.
“I think the traffic has been pretty good,” David Hayden, whose Dark Hollow consignment in Barn A is a first stop from the parking lot for many prospective buyers. “Yesterday was the busiest Saturday we've ever had here. So that was very helpful. We started at 8 a.m. this morning and the action ebbs and flows.”
The Dark Hollow consignment consists of 10 Maryland homebred yearlings. Hayden said the Maryland program offers buyers plenty of rewards.
“We have been doing this for 40 years,” Hayden said of the Dark Hollow operation. “We've bred 65 stakes winners and 25 graded stakes horses, 15 graded stakes winners. I think we are in really great shape with the owner bonuses, the breeder bonuses. In our case, if we keep a horse–we have seven in training right now–we are looking at, between being Virginia certified and all the other stuff, we are looking at 65% bonus money. It keeps you in the game.”
For Stuart Morris, the Midlantic sale is another stop on a busy fall schedule of auctions and the consignor is hoping the strong demand for horses that has been seen at sales from Kentucky to New York, to Texas and to California continues in Maryland.
“We sure hope the momentum continues,” Morris said. “I have 172 [yearlings to sell] this month in four states, so I am really hoping it continues. I'm trying to ride that wave. That Keeneland sale was so electric, I don't know that we can ever expect any sale again to be that good. I think it was a seminal moment in our industry, to be honest with you. I think it's unfair to compare any sale to that one, at least for a while. But I think the momentum is good and the energy is up. The sale in Texas this year was way up and California was great. It feels like it's a good time to be in our industry selling horses and playing the game again.”
Bill Reightler, who will offer 42 yearlings during the two-day Midlantic auction, is expecting to familiar trends in Timonium this week.
“It's going to be polarized, but it's going to be a good sale for the right horse, for the horses that the buyers perceive as quality and vets well,” Reightler said.
Of activity at the sales barns, Reightler said, “Traffic has been good. We have 42 in the consignment and yesterday we showed 650 times and with 11 all-shows. So it was good. I think we showed a little more last year, but the sale doesn't start until 1 p.m. on Monday, so I am sure more people are still coming. There seem to be a fair amount of people that are looking for a good racehorse. And I have heard a lot of those people who like to stay in the six-figure range got shut out [at other sales] and they are coming here.”
During last year's Midlantic sale, held during the pre-vaccination pandemic, 379 yearlings sold for $9,120,700 for an average of $24,065 and a median of $14,000. The sale was topped by a $270,000 son of Gun Runner, who was one of 11 to bring six figures at the auction.
The post Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale Starts Monday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Charlie Appleby had pencilled in ParisLongchamp's G1 Qatar Prix de la Foret as an end-of-season target for Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) since 2019, but met with one setback after another at a vital juncture in recent seasons and prior engagements were not fulfilled. Scroll forward to 2021 and the 5-year-old chestnut delivered a performance of sheer brilliance to make up for previous absences and won going away in style at the end of the seven-furlong test. Space Blues' 2020 season was brought to a premature close after winning Deauville's G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest and he continued in similar vein when annexing Riyadh's valuable Turf Sprint in his first start this year. Unplaced when contesting Meydan's Mar. 27 G1 Al Quoz Sprint and Goodwood's July 27 G2 Lennox S., he went postward as the crowd's 7-2 favourite for this date with destiny coming back off an impressive score in York's Aug. 21 G2 City of York. Rider William Buick employed patient tactics after an alert getaway and settled his mount into a smooth rhythm towards the back of a strung-out field. Inching ever closer in the straight, Space Blues was last to come off the bridle after the cutaway and quickened smartly inside the final furlong to easily outpoint the prominently ridden Pearls Galore (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) by two lengths. Japan's Entscheiden (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) fared best of the remainder and finished 3/4-of-a-length back in third.
“We saw how he was at York, he's definitely back to his best and I'm delighted,” said Charlie Appleby after bookending the weekend stakes extravaganza with winners. “We took it a bit easy with him in the Spring and he came out on soft ground at Goodwood. He needed that a little bit and then went to York where I thought he was fantastic. I have been trying to get him to this race for the past three years and we put him bubble wrap, so to speak, after York and protected him. He worked last week and electric so I was confident, apart from the ground being a bit testing, coming into today. I told William [Buick] to not get drawn too far back, but he's got all the confidence in the world and rode with oodles of it. William filled him up in the straight and, once he pressed the button, there's one thing this horse can do and that's produce an electrifying turn of foot. That's just what he did and he put the race to bed. It's been a great weekend and I'm delighted for the whole team.”
As a career in the breeding shed awaits, Appleby indicated a Stateside swansong at Del Mar might now be on the agenda for Space Blues. “This, potentially, is his last year in training and he deserves to take up stud duties when the time comes. We might just give him one more roll of the dice in the [GI] Breeders' Cup Mile. He'll travel around there [at Del Mar] and, with a half-decent draw and a bit of wind behind him, he might be alright.”
“He's just a machine and one of my favourite horses,” added Buick. “He's generous, easy to ride and has a lot of class. With him, you just have to sit back and wait for him to deliver his finishing kick. The Breeders' Cup Mile is a two-turn race and he's adaptable enough to do well there.”
Dual Group 3 winner Pearls Galore was narrowly denied in last month's G1 Matron S. at Leopardstown on Irish Champions weekend and another turn in the spotlight yielded another runner-up finish at the highest level, albeit in more clear-cut fashion this time around. “Pearls Galore put in a magnificent effort and the only one to beat her is a very good horse,” said Haras de Saint Pair's racing advisor Crispin de Moubray. “She deserves to win a Group 1 race one day and it's up to Monsieur [Andreas] Putsch to decide whether she stays in training next year. It's a great story as he placed his trust in Paddy Twomey, and the reward has been two Group wins and two Group 1 seconds. Paddy Twomey is a great trainer.”
Koji Maeda's Japanese stakes scorer Entscheiden took a useful sighter when fifth over course and distance in last month's G3 Prix du Pin and benefitted from that prior experience to claim third at odds of 45-1. “The horse had already run well on a soft track in Japan, he loved the ground here and gave his all,” said rider Ryusei Sakai. “I believed that the race was there for the taking at the first winning post and he really proved courageous in the run to the line.”
Space Blues, one of four winners produced by G2 Challenge S. victress Miss Lucifer (Fr) (Noverre), is a half-brother to MGSW G2 Al Maktoum Challenge and G3 UAE Oaks winner Shuruq (Elusive Quality), herself the dam of this year's GIII The Very One H. winner and GI Belmont Oaks Invitational runner-up Antoinette (Hard Spun). The homebred chestnut is also kin to the unraced 3-year-old filly Beautiful Future (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) and a yearling filly by Dark Angel (Ire). Miss Lucifer is the the leading performer out of a winning half-sister to G2 King Edward VII S.-winning sire Amfortas (Ire) (Caerleon) and fellow sires Chevalier (Ire) (Danehill) and Chief Lone Eagle (Giant's Causeway). She is also kin to G3 Prix de Royaumont victress Legend Maker (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), herself the dam of G1 1000 Guineas heroine Virginia Waters (Kingmambo), and to the dam of G1 Matron S. victress Chachamaidee (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}). Space Blues' third dam High Spirited (Ire) (Shirley Heights {GB}), whose descendants also include the Classic-placed duo Rain Goddess (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Alexander of Hales (Danehill), is a full-sister to G1 Premio Roma heroine High Hawk (Ire), herself the dam of MG1SW sire In the Wings (GB) (Sadler's Wells).
Sunday, ParisLongchamp, France
QATAR PRIX DE LA FORET-G1, €350,000, ParisLongchamp, 10-3, 3yo/up, 7fT, 1:22.97, hy.
1–SPACE BLUES (IRE), 128, h, 5, by Dubawi (Ire)
1st Dam: Miss Lucifer (Fr) (GSW-Eng, $193,403), by Noverre
2nd Dam: Devil's Imp (Ire), by Cadeaux Genereux (GB)
3rd Dam: High Spirited (Ire), by Shirley Heights (GB)
O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charlie Appleby; J-William Buick. €199,990. Lifetime Record: Hwt. Older Horse-Fr at 5-7f, 18-10-3-1, €1,305,608. *1/2 to Shuruq (Elusive Quality), Hwt. Older Mare-UAE at 7-9.5f, MGSW-UAE, GSW-Tur & GSP-Eng, $658,709. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Pearls Galore (Fr), 125, f, 4, Invincible Spirit (Ire)–Pearl Banks (GB), by Pivotal (GB). O/B-SCEA Haras de Saint Pair (FR); T-Paddy Twomey. €80,010.
3–Entscheiden (Jpn), 128, h, 6, Deep Impact (Jpn)–Le Sucre, by Sakura Bakushin O (Jpn). O-Koji Maeda; B-North Hills (Jpn); T-Yoshito Yahagi. €40,005.
Margins: 2, 3/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 3.50, 7.70, 45.00.
Also Ran: Kinross (GB), Sagamiyra (Fr), Speak Of The Devil (Fr), Current Option (Ire), Tropbeau (GB), Last Empire (GB), Duhail (Ire), Njord (Ire), Onassis (Ire), Rhythm Master (Ire), Erasmo (GB), Colosseo. Scratched: Thunder Moon (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by TVG.
The post Dubawi’s Space Blues Strikes For Belated Foret Success appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.