June, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bradsell Defeats Highfield Princess In King’s Stand Stakes At Royal Ascot

Victorious Racing's Bradsell (GB) outbattled multiple Group 1 winner Highfield Princess (FR) June 20 to claim the £627,500 King's Stand Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, securing an automatic berth into the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) through the Breeders' Cup Challenge: Win and You're In.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 80 stakes races whose winners receive automatic qualifying positions, with fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, which is scheduled to be held Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

Featuring runners from Australia and the United States, as well as Britain and Ireland, the 5-furlong King's Stand was to provide a test of the strength of domestic sprinting. Yet in the end it concluded as a home match between 3-year-old Bradsell and the 6-year-old mare Highfield Princess, who drew away from the rest of the field on the way to the finish.

Bradsell, added to the race by trainer Archie Watson for a supplementary fee of £35,000, defeated champion Highfield Princess by 1 length. Annaf (IRE) was third, with Twilight Calls (GB) fourth. The winning time was 1:00.91 on ground rated good.

Sent off at odds of 14-1, Bradsell strayed to his left into the path of 7-4 favorite Highfield Princess in the closing stages but a stewards' inquiry concluded that the interference had not improved the winner's placing and confirmed the result, allowing jockey Hollie Doyle to celebrate a historic first Royal Ascot Group 1 victory by a female jockey. She also became the most successful female jockey in Royal Ascot history with her fourth win at the meet.

Doyle, 26, is one of only four female jockeys to ride a winner at Royal Ascot. Her best win before Tuesday had been achieved on Bradsell in last year's Group 2 Coventry Stakes.

“Coming to Royal Ascot and again having a winner on the first day is unbelievable,” said Doyle. “I have a big book of rides but you play it down every year, thinking 'If I got one, I'd be doing well.'

“It's a great achievement and hopefully there will be plenty more ahead. You live for group one races. It's a great day and to win the King's Stand for Archie and Victorious Racing is brilliant.”

Watson had a nervous wait before the result was confirmed, having experienced a cruel loss when Dragon Symbol (GB) was demoted to second after finishing first past the post in the 2021 Commonwealth Cup (G1) with the race awarded to Campenelle (IRE).

“When Dragon Symbol had the race taken away, it was terrible, and I didn't want to do too much celebrating, but I am just delighted for everyone,” Watson said.

“I know we're seen as a big yard, but for a yard like us to be winning a group one here is the best thing on the planet. There was dread when that bing-bong [of the stewards' inquiry] happened, especially having just been chinned in the Coventry, but it's amazing and I'm so pleased for everyone involved.

“I think Hollie and I have had 200-odd winners together now; she's been massive for my career and I hope vice versa.”

Bradsell could next line up in another Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race, the Aug. 25 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) at York, where a rematch with Highfield Princess is likely. She could also run again in Saturday's Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (G1).

“When you can run her and run her, she's better,” said trainer John Quinn. “I am not making excuses. If she ran well today, Saturday was always right in mind. We are leaving her down tonight and I'll go and have a look at her – if she's OK, she will run.”

As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, Breeders' Cup will pay the entry fees for Bradsell to start in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, which will be run at 5-furlongs at Santa Anita. Breeders' Cup also will provide a travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships.

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Mass-Bred Legend Dr Blarney Wins at 10, but Retirement May Be Near

It was starting to look like time had finally caught up with the old war horse Dr Blarney (Dublin). He came into an allowance race Monday at Finger Lakes having lost six straight, understandable considering the horse is 10 and made his debut in 2015 at Monmouth Park. But the pride of the Massachusetts breeding program was back on his game, winning by a length under jockey Jackie Davis. It was the ninth straight year in which he had won at least one race.

“He's stayed relatively sound all these years,” trainer Karl Grusmark said. “We've had some issues with quarter cracks that pop up once in a while, but other than that he's been a very healthy horse.”

With there being no racing in Massachusetts, the state's breeding program is verging on extinction. In 2013, the year Dr Blarney was born, the Massachusetts foal crop consisted of 41 horses. In 2021, the latest year available through The Jockey Club Fact Book, that number was seven. In 2022, only one mare was bred in the state.

Dr Blarney is one of only five horses bred in Massachusetts who have raced this year.

But the breeding program could always depend on Dr Blarney for some needed doses of spirit-lifting good news. Bred by his owner, Joseph DiRico, he broke his maiden in his first start, a July 12, 2015 $30,000 maiden claimer at Monmouth for then trainer Thomas McCooey. He lost his next two, including a start in the Tyro S. at Monmouth, but soon found his element. McCooey shipped him to Suffolk Downs to take on fellow Mass-breds in the Norman Hall S. He won by 10 that day, the first of 15 state-bred stakes he would win from 16 tries. His only loss against Massachusetts-breds came in a grass race.

He ran in his last Mass-bred race in 2020, a year after Suffolk Downs closed down for good. Fort Erie offered some races for Massachusetts-breds and it was there that Dr Blarney won the Rise Jim S. for the fourth time. From there, he had to run exclusively against open company and he has held his own. He's won six more times, including a win against open stakes company in the 2020 Last Dance S. at Fort Erie, his second stakes win against open company. He also won the Governor's Day H. in 2018 at Delaware Park.

With the win this week at Finger Lakes, he upped his career record to 27-for-44 with earnings of $787,393. That doesn't include the $181,338 he's taken home in Mass-bred incentives and awards.

“It's like having an ATM machine in the shedrow,” said Grusmark, who took over the training of Dr Blarney from McCooey at the start of the 2017 season. “When he's right, he can compete. We won a stakes race at Delaware Park with him and we've run him at a lot of tracks. He's better against Mass-breds because of the competition, but he's a quality horse. He's a good honest horse that can win against good horses.”

Dr Blarney's best year earnings-wise was 2018, when he earned $188,570, but much of that was made beating up on inferior competition in state-bred races. He's made just $22,175 so far this year from three starts, but Grusmark believes there is plenty left.

“I think right now he's as good as he's been in a couple of years,” he said.

DiRico attributes Dr Blarney's longevity to how he's been handled throughout his career.

“Every winter we send him to a training center in South Carolina for three, three-and-a-half months,” he said. “Not racing during the winters has helped. He's also been racing in a lot of Massachusetts-bred races and in those races he really didn't have to extend himself. We've taken good care of him.”

So while it appears that Dr Blarney could keep going for a while, that's not the plan. With his win Monday, he passed Ask Queenie to become the leading all time Mass-bred money earner. But there's one more goal that DiRico wants to accomplish. Dr Blarney is tied with Ask Queenie and Rise Jim for most career wins ever by a Mass-bred at 27. Rise Jim is arguably the best Mass-bred ever and is a back-to-back winner of the Tom Fool S., winning the race in 1992 when it was a Grade II and again when it was a Grade III. A 28th win by Dr Blarney would mean that he had nothing else to prove.

“Mr. DiRico would be thrilled to see him become the leading Mass-bred winner of all time,” Grusmark said.

Grusmark said that Dr Blarney will likely be retired after his next win and that, win or lose, he will not race as an 11-year-old.

DiRico is already searching around to find a home for his gelding following his last race. He said one option is to give him Jessica Paquette, the announcer at Parx who worked at Suffolk in a number of roles before that track closed. She has offered him a home.

In the meantime, DiRico is making plans to say goodbye to a horse that has been so good to him.

“Since he's been stabled at Finger Lakes, I don't really get much of a chance to see him,” DiRico said. “I have a house at Saratoga for the summer and this year when I go up there I'm going to make sure that I go to Finger Lakes and see him and feed him carrots. When he's retired, I'll have to deal with that when the time comes. He's been very special.”

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Royal Ascot Talking Points: Record-Breaking O’Brien And Paddington Steal The Show

Day one done and dusted and it's hard to imagine that there will be a more impressive Group 1 winner than Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) at Royal Ascot this week.

The manner in which he swept aside the Guineas hero Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the St James's Palace S. was something to behold. So, too, has been the progression the colt has put in this season.

Paddington reappeared to win the prestigious Madrid Handicap at Naas off just 97 and shares something in common with fellow Aidan O'Brien-trained Group 1 winners Homecoming Queen (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) and Treasure Beach (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) in that he cut his teeth in handicaps before recording top-notch successes.

It's fascinating to see how far Paddington has come in such a short space of time and it will be even more interesting to predict where he might end up this season.

He has given a strong indication that he will be even better over further and his pedigree would back that up being by Siyouni and out of a Montjeu (Ire) mare.

Connections must be thinking about stepping Paddington up to 10 furlongs in time, with races like the Coral-Eclipse and possibly even the Irish Champion S. the most obvious races for him if they lean that way.

His success on Tuesday carried added significance given O'Brien became the most successful trainer in Royal Ascot history after he crossed the winning line.

O'Brien's tally at the royal meeting now stands at 83 winners. He is just 53 years old. Like Paddington, there will be a lot more to come.

River Tiber An Important Winner

The Coventry has a tendency to throw up the odd forgettable winner every now and again. In fact, no winner of the race has gone on to land a Classic since the 2012 scorer Dawn Approach (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), who remained unbeaten at two and landed the following year's 2,000 Guineas for Jim Bolger.

Few would bet against River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) charting a similar path and he could be the horse to bridge that Classic gap for the Coventry and something like the Dewhurst would look to be an obvious target for the colt this term.

“Different class,” is how Ryan Moore described the winner, and that is as good a summary as any for a horse who took over from long-time leader Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) deep inside the last furlong before putting almost two lengths between that rival and then holding the late flourish of the runner-up [Army Ethos (GB) (Shalaa {Ire})].

It was a performance of some substance, and one that earned River Tiber his position at the head of the betting for next year's 2,000 Guineas, for which he can be backed at odds of 10-1.

The win provided Aidan O'Brien with a record-extending 10th Coventry success, which makes the master of Ballydoyle the most successful trainer in the race's history, but an even bigger subplot to emerge from River Tiber winning was how Coolmore's investment in Wootton Bassett is beginning to pay off.

The Coventry was a big race for the stallion given Amo Racing's Bucanero Fuerte (GB) also ran a huge race to fill the placings back in third on just his second career start.

O'Brien touched on how excited he is about the progeny of the stallion, and rightly so, judging by the early accomplishments of Wootton Bassett at Coolmore.

Bradsell Pays Big Compliment To Bear

Speaking of the Coventry, last year's winner Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}) ensured that the words forgettable will never apply to him when he clung on to land a dramatic edition of the G1 King's Stand S.

Much of the chat about Friday's Commonwealth Cup has revolved around Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never), who had Bradsell confined to the rear-view mirror at Haydock last month.

Between O'Brien's fantastic start to the royal meeting and Bradsell providing the form with a major boost, one should expect that Little Big Bear won't go off the colour of the 13-8 that is on offer right now.

Worth Forgiving Sub-Par Efforts

For a nation that supposedly doesn't have any good sprinters, Britain didn't do too badly by sending out the first 10 home in the King's Stand.

Indeed, there were genuine excuses for the Australian runners Coolangatta (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}) and Cannonball (Aus) (Capitalist {Aus}) given the rain that fell beforehand would not have played to their strengths.

It should also be noted that Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}), last year's Queen Mary winner and a well-backed 7-2 chance before the off, can be forgiven for failing to get involved after racing alone on the stand's side rail with Cannonball.

Melbourne Cup Could Be Calling For Vauban

Willie Mullins has been talking about the Melbourne Cup for Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) even before the gelding won the Triumph Hurdle last year.

Connections came desperately close to winning the race in 2015 with Max Dynamite (Fr) (Great Journey {Jpn}) and in Vauban, hugely impressive in landing the Copper Horse Handicap, they could well realise the dream.

Three Cheers For Brilliant Broodmare Reem Three

How good is Reem Three (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire})? A three-time winner and listed placed when in training with Luca Cumani, she now boasts three Royal Ascot winners as a broodmare after the success of the aptly-named Triple Time (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 Queen Anne S.

Reem Three had already supplied Wokingham winner Cape Byron and Britannia scorer Ostilio, not to mention Ajman Princess finishing second in the Ribblesdale. A tremendous record.

A Mare In Foal An Unstoppable Force? Henderson Thinks So

Ascot Stakes winner Ahorsewithnoname (GB) (Cacique {Ire}) will soon be off to the paddocks after connections of the Nicky Henderson-trained mare revealed that she was in foal to Cracksman (GB).

There are some who swear that mares running in foal improve their performance, but it's almost impossible to prove it makes that much of a difference if any at all.

One thing's for certain, Ahorsewithnoname's career-best performance was a timely one, and Henderson was left convinced that getting the mare covered in the spring played an integral part in the Royal Ascot success.

He explained, “It definitely changed her. She's just much sharper. She used to be much more relaxed at home but when she came back from [being covered in] Newmarket, it certainly woke her up a bit. It's been a tried and tested route but you can only do it once. You've got 90 days–so, as I say, you can only do it once.

“We're pretty sure it had an effect. Now, with some, it might have the opposite effect. They might go all dreamy and sleepy and mummy. There's no doubt [it worked].”

Of course, Ahorsewithnoname is not the only mare to have recorded successes at the royal meeting whilst in foal.

Credit to Kevin Blake on Sky Sports Racing for the knowledge, but Indian Queen (GB) (Electric I {GB}) was also in foal when storming to her Gold Cup win in 1991.

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‘The Best Thing on the Planet’: Who Are We To Disagree?

ASCOT, UK–Some of us get slower as we get older. Bradsell (GB) is getting faster. So much so that, instead of treading the more obvious three-year-old sprinter route to the Commonwealth Cup, trainer Archie Watson talked the colt's owner Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa into supplementing him for the King's Stand S., and what an inspired move that turned out to be.

It takes a good horse to win at Royal Ascot once, but a proper horse to return triumphant, dropped back in trip to the minimum and with a little to prove as his comeback from the injury that curtailed his juvenile season gathered momentum.

Watson will have dreaded the sound of stewards' klaxon not long after Bradsell passed the post in front after he drifted a little towards the runner-up and last season's crack sprinter Highfield Princess (Fr). The trainer had the 2021 Commonwealth Cup all but snatched from his clutches when Dragon Symbol (GB) bumped Campanelle (Ire) in running and was demoted to second. Tension was writ large on Watson's face as he awaited the outcome of a prolonged stewards' enquiry, already in the winner's circle but reluctant to say too much in interviews being conducted as if he had won. Just half an hour earlier, Watson, his stable jockey Hollie Doyle, and Shaikh Nasser had had to settle for second with Army Ethos (GB) in the Coventry, a great run in itself for the Shalaa (Ire) colt who had made just one previous winning start.

Finally able to relax when it was confirmed that Bradsell had given him his third Royal Ascot victory and, more importantly, a second Group 1, he said, “I know we're seen as a big yard, but for a yard like us to be winning a Group 1 here is the best thing on the planet. There was dread when that bing-bong happened, especially having just been chinned in the Coventry.”

When Watson spoke to TDN last week, he was effusive in his praise of bloodstock agent Tom Biggs, the youngest member of the Blandford Bloodstock team with whom he has formed a strong partnership. Biggs, who appears far too self-effacing for his chosen profession, was another one blowing his cheeks out with relief as the trainer went to collect his trophy.

“We don't have huge budgets, we work hard at the sales and these days don't come along very often. He's just a very fast horse,” he said.

Biggs and Watson bought Bradsell, who became the first Group 1 winner for his Shadwell sire Tasleet (GB), from last year's Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale from Mark Grant for £47,000. He then changed hands privately following his nine-length debut success to make his first start in the Victorious Racing colours in the Coventry S. One run later a mid-race stumble in the Phoenix S. and subsequent leg fracture put paid to the rest of his juvenile campaign.

“It was quite a nasty injury but his temperament is so fantastic,” Biggs added. “When he breezed I loved his action and the way he got his head down and he got better the further he went. He's just a great horse to be involved with.”

Bradsell was bred by Deborah O'Brien, who has moved up two generations in the sire-line for this year's mating for his dam Russian Punch (GB) (Archipenko). The mare is now in foal to Oasis Dream (GB).

Bradsell's successor in the Coventry roll of honour, River Tiber (Ire), was a member of the final French crop of Wootton Bassett (GB) conceived at €40,000 before he joined the Coolmore ranks. It is hard to imagine that there are not bigger and better things to come from this stallion given the line-up of mares he has covered since moving to Coolmore, where his fee has jumped to €100,000 then €150,000. As an extra vote of confidence in Wootton Bassett, MV Magnier and Peter Brant paid 480,000gns last year for the subsequent Coventry winner at Tattersalls October Book 1. His breeder Ger Morrin of Pier House Stud would have been celebrating then, but this is where it's really at, and Morrin was all smiles as he accepted congratulations from the Coolmore camp and many others alongside the winner's circle.

“Fabulous,” he said. “He was always a fabulous-looking horse. He nearly died as a foal and thankfully we were able to save him. These are great people and he was good-looking yearling so they came and bought him.”

Morrin added that River Tiber's dam Transcendence (Ire) (Arcano {Ire}) is now back in foal to Wootton Bassett.

The Tabor colours carried by River Tiber were soon back in action aboard Paddington (GB), who made it a memorable day for the group of Coolmore owners by handing out a comprehensive defeat to Juddmonte's Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the battle of the Guineas winners in the St James's Palace S. Relatively rarely for these two superpowers of the breeding world, neither colt is a homebred.

For Aidan O'Brien, Paddington's victory was particularly significant as it took him past Sir Michael Stoute as the most successful trainer at Royal Ascot with 83 wins to his credit, nine of which have come in the St James's Palace S.

While Ryan Moore, with three winners on the day, stole the limelight from the retiring (eventually) Frankie Dettori, the leading owner-breeder honours unquestionably went to Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. His Triple Time (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) got the meeting off to a great start with victory in the Queen Anne S. for Kevin Ryan and Neil Callan, and a double was completed in the Wolferton with the Roger Varian-trained Royal Champion (Ire) (Shamardal).

The importance of a royal champion to British horseracing cannot be understated and it can only be hoped that the sport now has two. We have grown accustomed over many decades to the welcome message in the front of the racecard being in the name of 'Elizabeth R'. This year, for the first time, a joint message was signed 'Charles R' and 'Camilla R'.

Significantly, the new King and Queen led the royal procession for the first day of the meeting and will do so throughout. Joining them in the carriages, perhaps symbolically, was Ralph Beckett, their first trainer back in 2008 of a homebred filly bred in the January after they married. Fittingly, she was a daughter of King's Best, named Royal Superlative (GB). The colours of the royal couple have changed now to those distinguished purple and red silks made famous in the modern era by the runners of Queen Elizabeth II.

This year's royal welcome message was concluded by acknowledging the owners, breeders and trainers who make this meeting possible. The King and Queen said, “It is a huge and rare achievement to have a runner at Royal Ascot and we very much hope that you all enjoy the experience.”

Judging by the scenes of revelry around the bandstand and in the car parks post-racing, a good day was had by many. One down, four to go.

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