Balanchine | Horse Racing Free Tips

Creative Flair (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) had always looked like a promising filly for Godolphin and Charlie Appleby last year at three, and she built on that promise on Friday at Meydan with a first pattern-race win in the G2 Balanchine S.

A winner in her second of two starts at two, Creative Flair won on Royal Ascot Trials day before finishing second in the one-mile Listed Michael Seely Memorial S. at York. Creative Flair stepped up to 2000 metres to earn a first black-type victory in the Listed Abingdon S. at Newbury before traveling to France to finish third in the G3 Prix Chloe in July. Her travels then took her to America, where she was third in the GIII Saratoga Oaks Invitational S. and fourth in the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational S. six weeks apart.

Making her first start since, Creative Flair and William Buick broke on top from their wide post but were soon overtaken by Stunning Beauty (Ire) (Shamardal). Keeping that rival within a length while racing wide down the backstretch, Creative Flair moved in closer and began to close the gap approaching the turn. Creative Flair took the lead from Stunning Beauty at the top of the stretch but had to call on her reserves as Saeed bin Suroor's Dubai Love (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) and last-out G2 Cape Verdi winner Pevensey Bay (Ger) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) commenced their runs. Creative Flair re-broke inside the final furlong, however, hitting the wire three-quarters of a length the good.

Pedigree Notes

Creative Flair is the second foal and first stakes winner out of Hidden Gold (Ire) (Shamardal), who has a 2-year-old full-sister to Creative Flair. Hidden Gold is a daughter of the Listed Pretty Polly S. winner and dual Oaks-placed Melikah (Ire) (Lammtarra), a daughter of the great Urban Sea and therefore a half-sister to Galileo (Ire) and Sea The Stars (Ire) and five other stakes winners including the Group 1-winning Black Sam Bellamy (Ire) and My Typhoon (Ire). Melikah is the second dam of Khawlah (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), who was another star of the Dubai carnival for Godolphin, winning the G2 UAE Derby and G3 UAE Oaks before going on to foal Godolphin's Derby winner Masar (GB) (New Approach {Ire}). Other Group 1 winners on the page include the Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), Belmont Oaks winner Athena (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) and Irish Oaks victress Bracelet (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}).

BALANCHINE PRESENTED BY LONGINES EVIDENZA-G2, $180,000, Meydan, 2-4, 3yo/up, f/m, 9fT, 1:47.99, gd.
1–CREATIVE FLAIR (IRE), 126, f, 4, by Dubawi (Ire)
                1st Dam: Hidden Gold (Ire) (SW & MGSP-Eng,
                                $211,207, by Shamardal
                2nd Dam: Melikah (Ire), by Lammtarra
                3rd Dam: Urban Sea, by Miswaki
1ST GROUP WIN. O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charlie Appleby;
J-William Buick. $108,000. Lifetime Record: SW-Eng, 9-4-1-2,
$305,154. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A+.
2–Pevensey Bay (Ger), 130, m, 6, Footstepsinthesand (GB)–
Pachelbelle (Fr), by Anabaa. O/B-Julia & Jonathan Aisbitt (FR);
T-Hiroo Shimizu. $36,000.
3–Dubai Love (GB), 126, m, 5, Night of Thunder (Ire)–Devotion
(Ire), by Dylan Thomas (Ire). (120,000gns Wlg '17 TATFOA).
O-Godolphin; B-Petches Farm Ltd (GB); T-Saeed bin Suroor.
$18,000.
Margins: 3/4, NK, 2. Also Ran: Last Look (Ire), Soft Whisper (Ire), Silent Night (Swe), Dalanijujo (Ire), Wedding Dance (Ire), Mnasek, Stunning Beauty (Ire).
Click for the Emirates Racing chart. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO.

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Balanchine (Storm Bird-Morning Devotion, by Affirmed), who became the first Classic winner for Godolphin and Frankie Dettori when winning the 1994 G1 Epsom Oaks, has died aged 30. The chestnut mare had been pensioned from breeding duties for the past seven years and lived out her days at Sheikh Mohammed's Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.

Bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud, Balanchine was campaigned by Sangster during a 2-year-old campaign in which she won her two starts by a combined 10 lengths. Purchased thereafter by Sheikh Mohammed's elder brother Sheikh Maktoum, Balanchine was among the first cohort of horses wintered in Dubai by the Maktoum family, and her success in the season that followed spawned a programme within the operation that is still in place today. Beaten a short head in the G1 1000 Guineas, with the influential broodmare Coup De Genie a neck back in third, Balanchine regrouped to win the Oaks next out by 2 1/2 lengths over Deep Impact (Jpn)'s dam Wind In Her Hair (Ire) (Alzao), with Frankie Dettori aboard in the Godolphin blue. Balanchine's most memorable win, however, came three weeks later when she shipped to Ireland to take on the colts in the G1 Irish Derby. Traveling third on the inside early back in the Sheikh Maktoum silks, Balanchine moved into the two path and up to take the lead shortly before they straightened, getting first run on Sheikh Mohammed's favoured King's Theatre (Ire). That G1 Racing Post Trophy winner, who went on to beat older horses in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. next out, proved no match for the filly Balanchine, who drew clear to win by 4 1/2 lengths. That proved Balanchine's final win; she ran three times at four, her best finish being a second behind the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Carnegie (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) in the G3 Prix Foy.

Frankie Dettori, who was just 23 at the time that he won two Classics aboard Balanchine, reflected on his partnership with the mare in a 2019 interview with Horse Racing Ireland.

“I was over the moon after I'd won my first Classic on her at Epsom, and I thought the next step would be the Irish Oaks,” Dettori said. “But Sheikh Maktoum and Sheikh Mohammed were never short of a challenge and they decided to race against the colts in the Irish Derby. I thought 'God, this may be a step too far.' Obviously, I was proven wrong, because she won.

“It was my only Irish Derby win, and I was only 23, so I was ecstatic and delighted, and it was a massive feat for a filly. She was a one-off. It was a bold call to make a run against the colts, and that was, I guess, the stepping stone for what Godolphin is now. She was the start.”

Balanchine's best produce was the French Group 2-placed Gulf News (Woodman). Her half-sister Red Slippers (Nureyev), however, has been an influential producer for Godolphin. She foaled the G1 Prix de Diane victress West Wind (GB) (Machiavellian) and Eastern Joy (GB) (Dubai Destination), the dam of five stakes winners headed by the dual G1 Dubai World Cup scorer Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}).

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