Angel Shows No Limits To Trainer’s Scope

If Ralph Beckett was ever in danger of becoming a victim of his own success, having patiently developed three staying fillies to win Classics, then the precocious achievements of Angel Bleu (Fr) have surely taken care of that pretty unequivocally. The Dark Angel (Ire) colt made his debut a year ago this week, and was still on the go in October when he exported two Group 1 prizes from France inside 20 days. In between, he had won the G2 Vintage S. at Goodwood three days after finishing second at Ascot.

“I think he's changed a few people's minds, even among our owners,” Beckett admits. “One in particular, who hasn't sent me a colt in I don't know how long. So, yes, I hope it will have made quite a difference.”

Conceivably, perhaps, this horse may even have changed his trainer's own self-image. It's not as though Beckett has ever been remotely uncomfortable with his reputation as a trainer especially proficient with home-bred stayers, especially fillies. After all, a congenial environment for the nurturing of a filly is one of the selling points of the tranquil downland sanctuary of Kimpton Down Stables, on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border. And besides, no horseman could ever object to being considered something of a Henry Cecil for his generation, in showing a similar flair for one of the more delicate challenges of their vocation.

“Maybe it bothered me a bit more 10 years ago than it does now,” Beckett says of any stereotyping. “But as I've got older, it's bothered me less and less. Okay, so if you're pigeonholed as a trainer of fillies, you might miss out on one hand. But it's not a bad business model. You'll always have a chance that somebody, among those great owner-breeders—whether it's Miss Rausing, or Jeff Smith, or someone else—will keep sending you nice fillies. And one of them is going to step up.”

Regardless, Angel Bleu has now left no doubt of his trainer's versatility—albeit Beckett recalls the gamble of turning him round for Goodwood with wry self-deprecation. Reflecting on his Ascot run, Beckett and his old friend Jamie McCalmont, agent and manager for owner Marc Chan, had been on the point of suggesting the colt be gelded for export to Hong Kong.

“It was only when I fed him in the morning, and he nearly knocked me over, that we even started thinking about it,” Beckett recalls. “We jogged him up, and he just bounced up the yard. And I said would we be mad to run him again, and my headman Adam Kite—who's actually just retired, after 15 years with us—said it was going to rain, and that we should at least declare and see what the weather did. But what the horse did was obviously a real tribute to his constitution.”

As such, the people who keep asking Beckett whether Angel Bleu will go for the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas, or head back to France for the local equivalent, are asking the wrong question. If favoured by suitable conditions, a colt like this is perfectly capable of running in both.

“Absolutely,” replies Beckett, asked whether that possibility might be in the back of his mind. “No reason he couldn't. Last year we didn't even gallop him between the two races in France. And we never worked him on the grass between Goodwood and his race on Arc weekend. He'd have done one or maybe two bits on the all-weather, that's all. He didn't need more. Some horses are just made that way.”

Rain will probably end up determining Angel Bleu's ultimate schedule, as Beckett feels that he might benefit from a preliminary spin in the G3 Watership Down Stud Greenham S. at Newbury on Apr. 16. That would potentially put him on a schedule almost as hectic as the one followed by Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) last spring—but at least we already know this horse to be made of the right stuff.

What's so encouraging is that even the alacrity he showed at two doesn't rule out further progress in his second season. Angel Bleu is out of a sister to none other than Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), while his sire—despite being carted off to stud prematurely himself—has produced plenty of horses that thrive with maturity.

“Which is why some people say Dark Angel isn't a sire of sires,” Beckett remarks. “This horse was actually his first 2-year-old Group 1 winner. To look at him now, he's probably lengthier, he looks like a horse that's developed from two to three—as his pedigree says he should. Remember that Highland Reel also won the Vintage, and just got better and better with racing.”

Having sent out over 1,100 winners since taking out a licence at the turn of the century, Beckett is a trainer in his prime. Mentored in his youth by a series of great horsemen, from Jimmy FitzGerald to Arthur Moore to Martin Pipe, he has become an assured and accomplished presence on the English Turf, with a clientele commensurate with the excellence of his facilities—ranging from Juddmonte to Qatar Racing, from John Gunther to Julian Richmond-Watson.

The latter has been a stalwart supporter all the way through, and Beckett felt corresponding delight when Angel Bleu's G1 Grand Criterium de Saint-Cloud was complemented, the very same weekend, by the G1 Prix Royal-Oak success of Richmond-Watson's homebred Scope (GB) (Teofilo {Ire})—a bespoke fit, as a maturing stayer, for the stable's more familiar modus operandi.

Beckett had originally hoped that Scope might be the type to give him a second St Leger. Unfortunately the Lingfield trials day, a trademark learning experience for the stable's best 3-year-olds, was followed by a three-month lay-off and he had to be rushed into the G2 Great Voltigeur S. to have any chance of making it to Doncaster.

“I really had no idea how he'd run at York: if he'd been a furlong last, I couldn't have been surprised,” Beckett recalls. “I just hadn't been able to get the work into him. So he had a rather fraught preparation for the St Leger, and on the day he never got into it after missing the break. I'm not for a moment pretending he might have won, in different circumstances, but I'm sure he could have finished a good deal closer.”

As it was, everything clicked into place next time when Scope won a listed race by seven lengths at Ascot, emboldening a roll of the dice at Longchamp. With ongoing maturity, Scope will now be trained for the G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, ideally resuming in the G2 Yorkshire Cup on May 13. His penalty there is confined to 5lbs, and Beckett likes the intermediate distance as a starting point.

But if Scope exemplifies the merit of those owner-breeders who entrust the same family to the same trainer, so that its traits become familiar, he also reminds us how very precarious is any Thoroughbred's path to fulfilment.

His dam, Look So (GB) (Efisio {GB}), is a half-sister to Look Here (GB), who became the only Classic winner ever trained at Whitsbury in the 2008 G1 Oaks.

“Look So was a 3-year-old when Look Here was a 2-year-old,” Beckett recalls. “She'd won a couple in the summer but had then gone off the boil and we'd sent her back to her owners. Of course we had no idea at that stage what Look Here was going to be, she probably hadn't even galloped. And Julian said, 'Don't forget to enter her [Look So] in the Horses-in-Training Sale.' But I did—I completely forgot! So then he said that I'd better come up with another plan. So I said, 'Why don't you cover her with Compton Place (GB), and we'll run her in foal, and sell her in July?' She came back, won, didn't get in foal, won again—and then cracked her pelvis. And a month later Look Here won the Oaks. So somebody was really looking after us that day. Because she'd have made, what, 15 grand at the horses-in-training sale? And of course she has become the better broodmare of the two.”

Remarkably, even in excluding the three Group 1 prizes exported from France, Beckett ended 2021 with the best domestic haul of his career, falling just short of £2 million. Yet he still feels that 82 winners represented a shortfall in quantity, when measured against that undoubted quality.

“In a funny sort of way, I enjoyed 2020 at least as much,” he says. “Because although we had only had three winners by the time everything restarted on June 1, we ended up getting to the other side of 100. Whether the whole hiatus suited me, and the way they then laid out the programme, I don't know. But it was a year when everything went right. We didn't get a Group 1 but everything that should have won, did win. And don't forget that the 'quantity' is typically driven by the people who have always looked after you. If you're training a lot of winners, it's those owner-breeders who will tend to benefit.”

Richmond-Watson, of course, has generously contributed time and expertise to the service of the industry, notably with the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association and Jockey Club. And Beckett, too, is striving to do his bit, having recently been appointed President of the National Trainers' Federation. (Though he doesn't say so, you get the impression that he has limited regard for those who complain shrilly about the state of the racing nation, without being prepared to do anything about it.)

“My hope and belief is that there's a real chance for the Horsemen's Group to work more cohesively than has been the case in the recent past,” he says. “And we need to take that opportunity. I'd really like the Levy Board to take a stronger line—and a more independent line. It was set up to be independent of the different constituents, and to distribute the money to the benefit of the sport. And there are people in there who are capable of pulling that off.

“As for the BHA, let's say I'd like it to 'strip fitter'. They keep introducing new layers of regulation, rather than applying the rules already available. Nobody, for instance, has been sanctioned for their behaviour in the sales ring since the Jockey Club handed over regulation—but they were before. Instead, the BHA has gone out there to make a few headlines; to say, 'Look what I'm doing!' Everything is already in place to police the sport, I'm just not quite sure they have the will or the wherewithal.”

Like so many, Beckett is anxious about the sustainability of a sport effectively banking on heritage and the export market as a substitute for prizemoney.

“The only way to survive as a trainer is to be a good horse dealer, really,” he says. “The 80-to-100 horse, the decent handicapper, just isn't here anymore. We saw that in the Spring Mile [eight runners only] at Doncaster the other day. The idea that a horse rated 86 could get into the Lincoln! I was told that the last time that happened was 2002. And the race then was worth the same as it is now.”

In terms of his own business, however, things are plainly flourishing. True, he's always a little nervous of April, with pollen counts rising and the weather so fitful. But for all the additional excitement of launching a top-class 2-year-old at the spring Classics, the bedrock appears secure. Because the horses Beckett most enjoys training also happen to be owned (and, often, bred) by the patrons he most enjoys training for.

“When I started out there was a perception that the waters weren't quite so deep over longer distances,” he reflects. “Perhaps that isn't quite so true anymore. Probably all that really happened was that I inherited David Oldrey from Peter Walwyn and everything just rippled out from there. If you're training light-framed middle-distance fillies, I suppose it tends to be a bit easier on them at a place like this. But the set-up works for me too. I wasn't great at sharing, in Lambourn. And yes, definitely, I do enjoy being able to take my time. You need the right clients to be able to do that, obviously. But the whole beauty of it is that those are the people who are in it for the long haul.”

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Dark Angel’s Angel Bleu On Top In The Criterium International

Marc Chan's 2-year-old colt Angel Bleu (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) backed up a win in Goodwood's July 27 G2 Vintage S. in July with a career high in this month's G1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp and doubled his elite-level tally with a game victory in Saturday's G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud. The Listed Pat Eddery S. runner-up had earlier collected wins at Salisbury and Pontefract and, in the absence of late scratching Glounthaune (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), went postward as the 17-10 second choice for the one-mile test. Steadied to race off the tempo at the tail of the six-runner field, he was angled to the outside off the home turn and kept on strongly once launching his challenge with 350 metres remaining to deny the rallying Lagardere third Ancient Rome (War Front) by a head.

“He really is extraordinary and you don't get horses like this very often,” said Ralph Beckett. “We haven't had one like him and I'd say the softest part of him is his tooth enamel. He's danced every dance and I thought [racing manager] Jamie McCalmont summed it up very well earlier in the week when he said it's a privilege to be involved with him. It really is a privilege, horses like this don't come along very often and I'm very proud of him. He had a tough race in the Lagardere and he really does have the most extraordinary constitution. Any horse that can do what he's done has to have a fantastic constitution. Soft ground is very important to him and the form book tells you that. Whatever happens next, he's done it twice inside a month in a different country, which takes a lot of doing.”

Looking ahead to Classic targets for next year, the trainer added, “If I was going to bet on it, at this stages I'd say he's likely to turn up at Longchamp [for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains] rather than Newmarket [for the G1 2000 Guineas]”

Angel Bleu, half-brother to a yearling colt by Siyouni (Fr) and one of nine Group 1 winners for his sire (by Acclamation {GB}), is the first of two foals produced by a full-sister to MG1SW sire Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). His dam Cercle de La Vie (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a daughter of G2 South Australian Oaks runner-up Hveger (Aus) (Danehill), is also a full-sister to G1 Caulfield S. hero Cape of Good Hope (Ire), MG1SP G2 Great Voltigeur S. and G2 Hardwicke S. victor Idaho (Ire) and G3 Ballysax S. victor Nobel Prize (Ire). The February-foaled bay's G1 Australia Oaks-winning third dam Circles of Gold (Aus) (Marscay {Aus}) threw MG1SW Australian champions Elvstroem (Aus) (Danehill) and Haradasun (Aus) (Fusaichi Pegasus). Circles of Gold is the leading performer for Olympic Aim (NZ) (Zamazaan {Fr}), whose descendants include MG1SW sire Starspangledbanner (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) and G1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas victrix Amicus (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}).

Saturday, Saint-Cloud, France
CRITERIUM INTERNATIONAL-G1, €250,000, Saint-Cloud, 10-23, 2yo, c/f, 8fT, 1:44.40, vsf.
1–ANGEL BLEU (FR), 126, c, 2, by Dark Angel (Ire)
1st Dam: Cercle de la Vie (Ire), by Galileo (Ire)
2nd Dam: Hveger (Aus), by Danehill
3rd Dam: Circles of Gold (Aus), by Marscay (Aus)
(€120,000 Ylg '20 ARDEAY). O-Marc Chan; B-Pan Sutong Racing Bloodstock (FR); T-Ralph Beckett; J-Frankie Dettori. €142,850. Lifetime Record: GSW-Eng, 7-4-1-1, €492,051. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Ancient Rome, 126, c, 2, War Front–Gagnoa (Ire), by Sadler's Wells. O-Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier & Westerberg; B-Orpendale, Chelston & Wynatt (KY); T-Andre Fabre. €57,150.
3–Purplepay (Fr), 122, f, 2, Zarak (Fr)–Piedra (Ire), by Lawman (Fr). (€100,000 Ylg '20 ARQSEP). O-Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois; B-Mme Lisa Lemiere Dubois (FR); T-Cedric Rossi. €28,575.
Margins: HD, 1 1/4, HD. Odds: 1.70, 1.20, 4.30.
Also Ran: Aikhal (Ire), Toimy Son (Fr), Oscula (Ire). Scratched: Glounthaune (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by TVG.

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Dark Angel’s Angel Bleu Pounces For Jean-Luc Lagardere Triumph

Unseen since annexing Goodwood's G2 Vintage S. in July, Marc Chan's 2-year-old colt Angel Bleu (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}), dented a host of lofty reputations and pounced late for a game success in Sunday's G1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere – Grand Criterium at ParisLongchamp. The Listed Pat Eddery S. runner-up had snagged two low-key heats, at Salisbury and Pontefract, in his first four starts and was sent postward as an 11-2 chance for the seven-furlong test. Steadied at the break to race off the pace in a midfield sixth along the rail, he responded to Frankie Dettori's continued urgings in the straight to go second approaching the final furlong and kept on relentlessly under a late drive to deny Godolphin's pacesetting Listed Flying Scotsman S. winner Noble Truth (Fr) (Kingman {GB}) by 3/4-of-a-length nearing the line. Coolmore and Westerberg's 12-5 favourite Ancient Rome (War Front) came from off the pace with a late rattle, but was unable to catch the front two and finished the same margin back in third.

“We felt the bend really helped him at Goodwood and the bend helped him again today because he can be quite exuberant,” explained trainer Ralph Beckett. “We came for the ground, it all fell into place today, this is my first Group 1 win in France and it couldn't have worked out any better. It was tough as he had to go and get the other horse and then put it to bed. We were always going to come here after Goodwood, he's tough and it's all worked out. He has been great to train from day one and he's really been very straightforward. He's been brilliantly managed, [owner] Marc Chan is a very easy guy to deal with and he has taken the advice of Jamie McCalmont, who has called it right all along.”

Looking ahead to future targets, the trainer didn't commit to punching a “Win-And-You're-In” ticket to the Breeders' Cup and added, “The Breeders' Cup is a possibility, but there's not much soft ground in Del Mar. It was soft at Newmarket on Saturday, he's still in the [G1] Dewhurst [next Saturday] and I wouldn't rule that out. He's backed up quickly before and when they're in good form and the ball's at your feet it's always a good idea to kick it.”

For Frankie Dettori, it was some measure of compensation having missed on a ride in the Arc following the withdrawal of Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). “I had a good draw and a good race,” claimed the rider after registering a third win in the contest. “I waited until the false straight before making my move and I always knew that we were going to win. I don't have a ride in the Arc, unfortunately, but winning a Group 1 race on this card is always special. I'm delighted for the owner, Marc Chan, who is a newcomer to racing and has acquired several horses with a view to winning the Hong Kong Derby.”

“I'm delighted and it's definitely a step up from where we've been,” said Charlie Appleby after Noble Truth had made a bold attempt to win from the front. “We've tried to hold on to him before, but he's a fairly keen horse so we tried a different tack today. We tried it at home in midweek before we decided to come here. We let him roll on the front end of a gallop and they couldn't get to him and he very nearly pulled it off today. We'll see how he comes out of it and we'll see where we are. I thought we might go to Saint-Cloud [for the one-mile Oct. 23 G1 Criterium International] with him. We know he'll handle conditions there so we might have a look at that.”

Rider Mickael Barzalona was of the opinion the draw was the most significant factor, and not the heavy going, in contributing to the defeat of Ancient Rome and elaborated, “Ancient Rome ran well and was not hampered by the ground judging by the way that he finished his race. We would have preferred to have been drawn on the inside, but, unfortunately, we were forced to deal with his number nine draw.”

Angel Bleu, half-brother to a yearling colt by Siyouni (Fr), becomes the ninth Group 1 winner for his sire and is the first of two foals produced by a full-sister to MG1SW sire Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). His dam Cercle de La Vie (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a daughter of G2 South Australian Oaks runner-up Hveger (Aus) (Danehill), is also full to G1 Caulfield S. hero Cape of Good Hope (Ire), MG1SP G2 Great Voltigeur S. and G2 Hardwicke S. victor Idaho (Ire) and G3 Ballysax S. victor Nobel Prize (Ire). The February-foaled bay's G1 Australia Oaks-winning third dam Circles of Gold (Aus) (Marscay {Aus}) threw MG1SW Australian champions Elvstroem (Aus) (Danehill) and Haradasun (Aus) (Fusaichi Pegasus). Circles of Gold is the leading performer for Olympic Aim (NZ) (Zamazaan {Fr}), whose descendants include MG1SW sire Starspangledbanner (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) and G1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas victrix Amicus (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}).

Sunday, ParisLongchamp, France
QATAR PRIX JEAN-LUC LAGARDERE (GRAND CRITERIUM)-G1, €400,000, ParisLongchamp, 10-3, 2yo, c/f, 7fT, 1:24.58, hy.
1–ANGEL BLEU (FR), 126, c, 2, by Dark Angel (Ire)
1st Dam: Cercle de la Vie (Ire), by Galileo (Ire)
2nd Dam: Hveger (Aus), by Danehill
3rd Dam: Circles of Gold (Aus), by Marscay (Aus)
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. (€120,000 Ylg '20 ARDEAY). O-Marc Chan; B-Pan Sutong Racing Bloodstock (FR); T-Ralph Beckett; J-Frankie Dettori. €228,560. Lifetime Record: GSW-Eng, 7-4-1-1, €349,201. Werk Nick Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Noble Truth (Fr), 126, c, 2, Kingman (GB)–Speralita (Fr), by Frankel (GB). (€1,100,000 Ylg '20 ARAUG). O-Godolphin; B-Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois (FR); T-Charlie Appleby. €91,440.
3–Ancient Rome, 126, c, 2, War Front–Gagnoa (Ire), by Sadler's Wells. O-Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier & Westerberg; B-Orpendale, Chelston & Wynatt (KY); T-Andre Fabre. €45,720.
Margins: 3/4, 3/4, SNK. Odds: 5.50, 6.40, 2.40.
Also Ran: Accakaba (Ire), The Wizard of Eye (Ire), Stone Age (Ire), Rocchigiani (GB), Ebro River (Ire), Arnis Master (Ger). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by TVG.

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Racing a Pursuit of Passion For Chan

Racehorse owner Marc Chan saw his silks in the spotlight not once, but twice last week at Glorious Goodwood when Angel Bleu (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) supplied a significant Tuesday double in the G2 Vintage S. and G2 Lennox S. And while the rise of Chan–an owner in Britain for just a year–to the pinnacle of the sport seems to have happened suddenly, it is in fact the apex of a lifelong passion that was sparked when Chan started going to the races with his father at just 10 years of age in his native Malaysia.

“That was out of this world,” Chan said three days removed from his Goodwood accomplishment, recalling how he watched the races live from home in Hong Kong thanks to the Hong Kong Jockey Club's World Pool. “We had hoped for a winner in one of the Group 2 races, but we never would have been close to thinking we could get a double there.”

Chan, a tech entrepreneur and private equity investor, has raced horses in Hong Kong for close to a decade and later added a string in Australia, where he currently has a small handful of horses in training with the Hayes family at Lindsay Park. Over the past year he has built up a small but highly successful stable in Europe largely with trainer Ralph Beckett; New Mandate (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) brought him near immediate stakes success last year when winning the Listed Flying Scotsman S. and G2 Royal Lodge S. after being purchased privately. Chan likewise has four 2-year-olds in training in America: two in California with Paddy Gallagher and a pair on the East Coast with Graham Motion and Brad Cox.

Chan was bitten by the racing bug as a child in Malaysia, when his father and grandfather took him to the races in Kuala Lumpur.

“My grandfather and my father were racing fans and they loved to punt-they were big time punters back then,” Chan recalled. “So I was exposed to horses back then when I was very young. I still remember all the jockeys' names, the trainers' names; back then you had Ivan Allen, who was a legendary trainer. Even today when I talk to the trainers and agents in England they all remember that he was a maestro.”

Chan later relocated to Canada to attend the University of Western Ontario, where he obtained an engineering degree and lived and worked in the greater Toronto area. While his passion for racing largely took a backseat to his business interests at that stage, his proximity to Woodbine Racetrack–and to the Canadian paddocks that have had such a profound influence on the global Thoroughbred breed–kept him on the hook.

When Chan relocated to Hong Kong in 1991, he found himself immersed in yet another locale with a vibrant racing culture, albeit highly contrasting with the wide open spaces of Canada. Some 20 years later, he at last leapt into the business of racehorse ownership and pursued his passion for horses.

“About seven or eight years ago, my dad had come over from Malaysia and he was watching the racing on TV and he my wife were punting on it,” Chan said. “So I said, 'hey, why don't we get more involved in this beyond just punting and own a horse in Hong Kong?' So that's when we applied to be a Jockey Club member and to get a permit for a horse.

“I also took up riding at the Hong Kong Jockey Club riding school. They have a private riding school at the Beas River Equestrian Center where you can ride the retired racehorses. I always loved horses but had never got around to [learning to ride]. I had always wanted to own a farm and be close to horses, so I went to the farm that is owned by the Jockey Club in Hong Kong and was able to get close to them and go riding there.”

Chan has enjoyed success as an owner in Hong Kong at a moderate but respectable level with Class 3 and 4 horses, and he and his wife currently have three horses in training in Hong Kong and are involved with one in a syndicate. A few years ago, while searching for European horses to import and aim for the Hong Kong Derby, Chan was introduced to Jamie McCalmont and Frankie Dettori.

“They began to help me look for horses for the Hong Kong Derby, and I told them I was interested not only in racing in Hong Kong but that I'd like to get global with my racing,” Chan explained.

Among the earlier purchases were The Summit (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Tsar (GB) (Kingman {GB}). The former had won the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau and finished second in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains for trainer Henri-Alex Pantall before Chan scooped him up, after which he was second to Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) in both the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano before joining trainer David Hayes in Hong Kong. The Summit ran three times in Hong Kong over the 2020/21 season and is currently on his way back from a minor injury.

Tsar is a Juddmonte-bred who won three times over a mile for John Gosden and was gelded and sent to trainer Me Tsui. Though he didn't make the cut for the Hong Kong Derby, he has been gradually improving and won a Happy Valley handicap on May 26. “He's doing well and is a very classy horse,” Chan said.

Around the same time the deals were done for The Summit and Tsar, Chan was also completing the paperwork for New Mandate, who had won at third asking at Sandown by 2 1/2 lengths. The $35,000 yearling had been gelded prior to the start of his racing career, a fact that would have automatically struck him off the list of a certain sector of purchasers shopping the private market. Not so for Chan, however, whose membership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club gives him a viable outlet for horses without breeding potential. New Mandate justified Chan's faith almost immediately, winning the Flying Scotsman within weeks of his purchase and the Royal Lodge two weeks after that, both under Chan's pal Dettori. The latter victory earned New Mandate a trip to the Breeders' Cup, giving Chan a first runner at that prestigious meeting in his first year of ownership in Britain. It wasn't to be at Keeneland, however; New Mandate blew all chance early when breaking a step slow and then pulling hard under Dettori, burning himself out in the preliminaries. With the prospect of a lengthy career ahead of him, New Mandate underwent minor knee surgery over the winter and was not fully race fit when beating just three home in the G3 Jersey S. at Royal Ascot.

“He has run just once this year and he really wasn't ready, he was just getting back into the rhythm so we're looking to run him in Europe in the coming months,” Chan explained.

Chan's immediate rapport with Beckett surely gave him added confidence when the trainer last winter presented him with another horse in his yard. Kinross had made a memorable impression when winning by eight lengths on debut at Newmarket at the back end of his 2-year-old campaign, earning the 'TDN Rising Star' tag. Things had gone somewhat pear-shaped thereafter, however, for the Julian Richmond-Watson homebred, who was off the board in his next five starts before winning the Listed Hyde S. on the Kempton all-weather last November. Chan swooped in to purchase him after that victory, and after a pair of lacklustre efforts back on the turf at Meydan over the winter, he was gelded. He has since elevated his form to a new level, going two-for-two since the operation in the G3 John of Gaunt S. in May and last week's Lennox. His long-term target this campaign is the G1 Prix de la Foret.

“Ralph had said the horse had a lot of potential, but he had some issues that needed to be unlocked,” Chan said. “The horse had been underperforming so I was willing to take a chance with the much-reduced value of the horse, and hopefully we'd find the key to unlock his potential. We went through a few experiments to get to where we are today. Ralph probably has his own version of it, which might be much better than mine, but I think the gelding helped him a lot.”

One who looks likely to stay an entire, at least for now, is Angel Bleu, who increased his stud value markedly with last week's Vintage score under Dettori. That was the sixth run of his campaign and remarkably came just three days after he finished second in the Listed Pat Eddery S. at Ascot. Angel Bleu was almost handed a very different path, with the immediate post-race verdict of the Pat Eddery being that he should be gelded and sent to Hong Kong, but when the horse came bouncing out of his box in the following days, Beckett devised a new plan.

“He came out of the race very fresh,” Chan said. “Ralph Beckett called me and said, 'I'd like to run him again.' I said, 'ok, sure, you are the commander in chief, you know best what to do with the horse.' It sounded 'wow' to me, but he said the horse was full of energy and had only had a warm-up run at Ascot.

“I like that kind of thought process from the trainers, when they think outside the box and don't do the traditional, standard procedures all the time. Sometimes you have to try different things.”

Angel Bleu represents the next generation of Chan colourbearers sourced at auction. While the global pandemic has kept him away from the European and American races and sales-a fact he would like to remedy soon-Chan found himself drawn to a Dark Angel colt with unusual colouring at last year's Deauville Select Sale who also happened to be a close relative to Galileo's highest earning runner Highland Reel (Ire).

“We came across this horse and I liked the pedigree and the physical,” Chan said. “The horse has a very special colour to him–he's gray but he doesn't look gray. He's a very special mix of colour.”

Chan has 12 2-year-olds in training across Europe and America, and among those is the most high-profile yearling sold last year by Angel Bleu's relative Highland Reel, the half-brother to champion miler Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB}) who has joined his brother at the yard of John and Thady Gosden and has been named Highland Frolic (GB). He was a 320,000gns purchase from Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year, but Chan is not yet putting him up on a pedestal any higher than his other unraced juveniles.

“Hopefully he'll turn out to be good, but sometimes it's hard to tell,” he said. “All these half-brother, half-sister stories can turn out to be a mirage dream.”

Chan has an arsenal of well-bred juveniles preparing to make their debuts. He points to a full-brother to G3 Earl Of Sefton S. winner Steel Of Madrid (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) named Cresta De Vega (Ire) as one to watch, and is also looking forward to Northern Aurora, a Canadian-bred son of Uncle Mo bought by agent Kelsey Lupo's Atlas Bloodstock for $210,000 at Keeneland September last year. Northern Aurora, who is in training with Graham Motion, is named for the small town of Lucan, Ontario, where he was bred and foaled and where Chan himself lived for four years while at university.

Chan meanwhile also has his sights set on the next phase of expansion of his stable into the breeding sphere.

“That's where we'll be heading when some of our fillies have retired,” Chan confirmed. “That's why we have a number of fillies in Europe, like Valeria Messalina (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) with Jessie Harrington-she was supposed to run at Goodwood too but Jessie felt the ground wasn't right for her so she scratched. We have some fillies in the U.S., too, so hopefully we'll turn those into very good broodmares. I'd like to venture into breeding; I'm very fascinated by the breeding industry, but I'll be doing this mainly for myself, not commercially. I plan to breed to race rather than breed to sell.”

It isn't out of the question, either, that Chan could further expand his racing arm into Japan. He has businesses based in Hokkaido, Japan's power-packed breeding capital, and said ownership in Japan is something he is considering.

“I'm still weighing my options as to whether I want to dive into that,” he explained. “It's a very different culture and there is a language barrier, but I have friends who have horses there and they could partner with me or introduce me to the trainers and the industry there. I have friends who live in Hong Kong who have horses in Japan and also some friends from Tokyo who bring their horses to Hong Kong to compete in the international races. So I'm thinking about that, but I need to think clearly about how I'd be able to manage it.”

With an infectious enthusiasm for the industry to go hand-in-hand with his proven track record of success, Chan certainly seems to have unlimited potential when it comes to the global game of horse racing.

The post Racing a Pursuit of Passion For Chan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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