Month: February 2024

Letter to the Editor: Carrie Brogden

So I think this kind of sums up our industry, this attached photo. This weekend my daughter and I went to show her warmblood at WEC Ohio. It was a very successful weekend and we were lucky enough to stay at an Air BnB on a horse farm.

They had a book there with the check-in instructions and the history of the horse farm. I was reading the history of it, and I just wanted to share what to them is insignificant as just facts, but to me, it just hit me on the head as the truths we all need to face.

The show hunter world my daughter is riding in is absolutely booming… I mean it is much more popular now than when I was a kid growing up and showing my ponies. All of the stalls here are full and there are tons and tons of horse-loving people spending gazillion dollars to get zero return on their investments, other than their daughter or son's happiness.

It is going to be through the leadership in the horse racing world to change the trajectory that has been the same for us since I was a child at my parents Thoroughbred farm in Ocala in the 1980s. Funny as I remember the mixed sale catalogs there literally being three books and six days long in Florida.

I am no longer encouraging my daughter who wants to be a Grand Prix rider to eventually shift over to the Thoroughbreds.

Sadly, I have come to the realization that barring major change and intervention, there will be nothing left of our industry. By the time she is my age. (I am 51 she is 17)

Do you know the funny thing is about it all… We both have the most amazing draw and special thing to our industry… the HORSE!!!

But as one industry thrives the other dies.

Until it is about the sport and the horse like it is here in the show jumping world, my life, and the majority of people that I deal with in the Thoroughbred world will continue to contract in their businesses and farms…. As it is now, it is very hard for anything but the professionals to stand and be successful.

I mean, I know the expenses are all rising, as for labor, feed, hay, etc., all of the essentials, but this is the same here in the show world, so what have we done so horribly wrong? That they have done so horribly right?

To figure that out, and to move forward away from the horrendous go baby go campaigns and thought process that no longer appeals to our modern-day society… Then we might have a chance.

There is no person on the planet that wants the  Thoroughbreds and our industry to thrive and succeed more in their heart than me. I know that there are many of us, but historically most of us have not had any voice and no seat at the table where it really counts.

The table settings just keep getting smaller and smaller and instead of baking more pies, we're all just fighting over the existing slices.

I don't have all the answers, but I certainly know that there are answers out there. There has to be the willingness to implement them in a unified voice in the current “leadership,” which is not easy in anything we do. I am certainly optimistic that maybe things will change with the new program of light up racing.

The first meeting is this Monday afternoon and I certainly hope that anyone that cares like I do will be there. I want there to be something left for my children to be proud of.

Sincerely,

                Carrie Brogden, Machmer Hall

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Top-Class Multiple Group 1 Winner Nashwa Set For Dubai Turf Return

Top-class older filly Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) is being readied to make her seasonal return in the Dubai Turf at Meydan next month. 

Winner of the French Oaks and the Nassau S. as a three-year-old in 2022, the John and Thady Gosden-trained mare notched a third Group 1 win in last season's Falmouth S. at Newmarket, as well as being placed in the Nassau, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion S.

She was well-beaten on her final start of the year in the Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot, but owner Imad Al Sagar has sportingly brought her back for another campaign.

“The plan at the moment is to head for the Dubai Turf,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Al Sagar. “There doesn't seem to be an ideal race for her beforehand, so she'll probably have a racecourse gallop, just to make sure she's in good shape.”

He added, “She's won Group Ones at a mile and a-mile-and-a-quarter, so in between (nine furlongs) should be ideal. She's wintered well and is really just beginning her preparation. She's a lovely, scopey filly and very important to Imad and his Blue Diamond Stud–and it's exciting to have her back in full work.

“She ran some really top-class races last year, she had quite a hard end to the season but she seems to have got over it well and we're looking forward to this season.”

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Spirit Lifts Ferguson’s Triumphant Second Act 

A passion that was held against him by some, 20 years ago, has given Sir Alex Ferguson a new universe of pleasure.

They say there are no second acts in the lives of the famous – but you would have disputed that after seeing the former Manchester United manager's Spirit Dancer (GB) win the Howden Neom Turf Cup in Riyadh on Saturday night.

Ferguson's greatest thrill as a manager was to spot and develop young talent. David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and the Neville brothers were products of Ferguson's urge to 'breed' his own stars. The comparison was impossible to resist after Spirit Dancer – bred by Ferguson himself, from Frankel and Queen's Dream – came with a pulsating run under Oisin Orr to earn a £945,000 prize for him, Ged Mason and Peter Done, joint-owners of a seven-year-old who has become a star in the Middle East.

Spirit Dancer had already won the Bahrain International Trophy in November and will now be trained by Richard Fahey for a race at the Dubai World Cup meeting. All this is a far cry from the earthy British and Irish National Hunt tracks where Ferguson has watched several high-class jumpers leap and slog in his colours.

There is another context to Spirit Dancer's victory. We count the victories and the defeats of the greatest names in sport but see less clearly the agonies behind the theatre curtain.

In October last year, Ferguson lost his wife, Lady Cathy, at the age of 84. The two met in 1964. They had three children and 12 grandchildren. Both remained loyal to their roots in Glasgow. Behind the scenes Cathy was a rock and a dispenser of wisdom, often pithily. She was unchanged by the fame heaped on her family.

When I co-wrote his autobiography with Ferguson in 2013, we talked endlessly about his love for racing. He recalled a time when the intensity of managing United was starting to burn. In the book he said: “I was at the stage where Cathy was saying, 'You're going to kill yourself.' At home after work, I would be on the phone until 9 o'clock at night thinking about football every minute.”

He bought his first horse in 1996, after a lunch with the late John Mulhern, the Irish trainer, a man not lacking powers of persuasion. “The problem with you is that you'll want to buy every bloody horse,” Cathy told her husband.

We count the victories and the defeats of the greatest names in sport but see less clearly the agonies behind the theatre curtain.

That first one was called Queensland Star (Ire), named after a vessel his shipbuilding father had worked on the docksides of Govan. Those early forays led Ferguson into a successful spell of ownership in National Hunt racing, via a fallout with Coolmore (they're now on good terms) over breeding rights to Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire). A winner of seven consecutive Group 1 races, Rock Of Gibraltar had raced in Ferguson's silks.

The Coolmore dispute didn't diminish Ferguson's belief that racing could be a successful hunting ground for him as well as a fresh outlet in life after football management.

But no amount of fame or success can protect the elderly from the ravages of bereavement. Ferguson was 81 when Cathy passed away and faced a colossal adjustment to daily life. A widower after nearly six decades, Ferguson then said goodbye to his greatest ally at United, Sir Bobby Charlton, two weeks after Cathy's death.

The Riyadh celebration was more restrained than in Bahrain, where Mason lifted Ferguson so forcibly that he damaged one of his ribs. But to see 'Fergie' rejoicing trackside in Riyadh was to be reminded that racing can become not just a hobby but a way of life. To breed a top-class horse (after negotiating-down the cost of a nomination to Frankel) is another level of gratification – and one entirely comparable to Ferguson's youth policy at United, which revived the earlier thinking of Matt Busby.

Later, to compete with Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, Ferguson was thrust into the world of mega-transfers and global names. But his first love was developing his own players, just as he acquired Queen's Dream as a broodmare and brought Spirit Dancer into existence.

Nobody could have expected him to disappear after he retired as United manager in 2013. His restless energy and joie de vivre were bound to find fresh expression. Yet nor could it have been safely predicted that he would end up winning a million-pound race with a homebred son of Frankel (GB), three weeks after his promising novice chaser, Hermes Allen (Fr), was killed in a fall at Sandown.

When the Rock Of Gibraltar row blew up, somebody stood up at a Manchester United AGM and demanded Ferguson's resignation. Others accused him of becoming “distracted.” A decade later he left Old Trafford with 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League titles and five FA Cups.

Not everyone can compete at his level, but there are few better advertisements for what racing can bring to a person's life than Ferguson's triumphant second act in sport. As ever, Cathy was right about the voraciousness he would bring to his new hobby.

 

 

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Romantic Warrior Strikes ‘Gold’ In Epic Clash Of Derby Winners

Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) became just the third horse since the turn of the century to capture each of the four 2000-metre features in Hong Kong, as he outbattled fellow BMW Hong Kong Derby winner Voyage Bubble (Aus) (Deep Field {Aus}) in an epic renewal of the G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse Sunday afternoon.

The 6-year-old joins Vengeance of Rain (NZ) and Designs on Rome (Ire) as the only horses since 2000 to win the Derby, Gold Cup, G1 FWD QE II Cup and G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup.

It was anything but easy.

Making his first start since edging Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) for his second consecutive Hong Kong Cup some 77 days ago, Romantic Warrior was done no favors by Thursday's draw, leaving James McDonald to work some magic from the 11 hole with a short run to the first corner.

He was alertly away and the Kiwi, who famously rode him to victory in last year's G1 Cox Plate, immediately had a look to his left to see where he might be able to slot in. When Money Catcher (NZ) (Ferlax {NZ}) rolled forward, McDonald was able to secure some cover three wide from the second flight and by the time they made the backstretch run, Romantic Warrior had eased past Voyage Bubble and into a perfect spot from third, with Sword Point (Aus) (American Pharoah) at the head of affairs.

McDonald committed to an inside run around the second turn, while Zac Purton had Voyage Bubble on the back of Senor Toba (Aus) (Toronado {Ire}), ready to peel out to deliver his challenge when asked. Romantic Warrior was asked to take the gap between Money Catcher and Sword Point in upper stretch and did so willingly, but Voyage Bubble was right there and the stage was set for a thrilling climax. More or less stride for stride at the 200-metres, neither was willing to give an inch, but Romantic Warrior proved slightly tougher in the run to the wire. Nimble Nimbus (NZ) (Sacred Falls {NZ}) came from worse than midfield to snag third. McDonald has ridden Romantic Warrior in eight starts for seven wins, the only blemish a first-up fourth when prepping for the Cox Plate in the G1 Turnbull S. last October.

“He's the horse that does it all,” said McDonald. “He makes you look good all the time. His tenacity (and) will to win is phenomenal. I suppose instincts kicked in and (I) went with the flow. When you ride such good horses, you can do what you want to do and even if I made a little mistake during the race, he is probably good enough to overcome it and that was probably my mindset.

“I was mindful obviously that (Voyage Bubble) was having his second time at the 2000m and he (Purton) committed early – so it was a really good ride,” McDonald added. “My thinking was that I was going to be stronger late, so I just let him (Romantic Warrior) build through his gears under his own steam and he got there really easily.”

Trainer Danny Shum will now prepare Romantic Warrior for a three-peat attempt in the QE II Cup Apr. 28, with a trip to Japan for the G1 Yasuda Kinen looming an increasingly likely option. Voyage Bubble holds an entry for the G1 Dubai Turf Mar. 30 and could take up that engagement.

Pedigree Notes:

Romantic Warrior, a 300,000gns Tattersalls October grad and the most successful horse to emerge from the Hong Kong International Sale, is one of three winners from four to the races for his dam, a daughter of the English listed-winning and Group 3-placed, G2 Prix Jean Romanet and GI E. P. Taylor S. winner Folk Opera, who was purchased by Blandford Bloodstock carrying to Exceed and Excel (Aus) for €82,000 at the 2016 Goffs November Sale. The in-utero purchase, named Melodic Charm (Ire), was sold for 85,000gns at the 2018 Tattersalls October Sale and was a two-time winner at the races for Saeed Manana and James Tate before clearly benefitting from the success of Romantic Warrior when selling to the China Horse Club for 270,000gns in foal to Dark Angel (Ire) at last year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

Folk Melody is also the dam of the 3-year-old colt Operation Gimcrack (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) and a yearling colt by the same stallion that was bought back for 110,000gns at last year's Tattersalls October Sale. Folk Star (GB) (Le Havre {Ire}), a David Simcock-trained half-sister to Folk Melody who won her maiden at Kempton Nov. 6 and was a narrowly beaten second in a Lingfield handicap Nov. 25, was knocked down to Kildaragh Stud for 37,000gns at the 2023 Tattersalls December Sale. Folk Melody is additionally the dam of a weanling colt by New Bay (GB) and the granddam of Spielman (GB) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}), a maiden winner at Pau for Jean-Claude Rouget Feb. 4.

 

 

 

Sunday, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
CITI HONG KONG GOLD CUP-G1, HK$13,000,000, Sha Tin, 2-25, 3yo/up, 2000mT, 2:00.31, gd.
1–ROMANTIC WARRIOR (IRE), 126, g, 6, by Acclamation (GB)
1st Dam: Folk Melody (Ire), by Street Cry (Ire)
2nd Dam: Folk Opera (Ire), by Singspiel (Ire)
3rd Dam: Skiphall (GB), by Halling
(300,000gns Ylg '19 TATOCT; HK$4,800,000 HRA '21 HKJUN). O-Peter Lau Pak Fai; B-T J Rooney & Corduff Stud; T-Danny Shum; J-James McDonald; HK$7,280,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 4yo, 2x. Ch. Middle Distance Horse-HK, G1SW-Aus, 18-13-3-0, HK$127,076,084. Werk Nick Rating: C+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Voyage Bubble (Aus), 126, g, 5, Deep Field (Aus)–Raheights (Aus), by Rahy. (A$380,000 Ylg '20 INGFEB). O-Sunshine And Moonlight Syndicate; B-Torryburn Stud (NSW); T-Ricky Yiu; J-Zac Purton; HK$2,730,000.
3–Nimble Nimbus (NZ), 126, g, 6, Sacred Falls (NZ)–Marahau (NZ), by Pins (Aus). 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK-TYPE. (NZ$100,000 Ylg '19 NZBJAN). O-Jason Chan Kam Kwan; B-Waikato Stud Ltd; T-Ricky Yiu; J-Andrea Atzeni; HK$1,495,000.
Margins: NK, 3, 3/4. Odds: 65-100, 3-1, 23-1.
Also Ran: Straight Arron (Aus), Five G Patch (Ire), Beauty Joy (Aus), Encountered (Ire), Senor Toba (Aus), Sword Point (Aus), Champion Dragon (Ire), Money Catcher (NZ). Click for the HKJC chart, PPs and sectional timing.

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