Coolmore | Horse Racing Free Tips

Classic Win Still A Success Story For Sellers

There are good reasons for smaller trainers, owners and breeders to do their equine shopping at the drafts of the major breeding operations at horses-in-training and breeding stock sales. If buying a filly or young broodmare there is the potential for updates from well-managed families, members of which likely remain in their breeders’ broodmare bands. For the colts and geldings there is always the hope that a slower-maturing individual may well just have been deemed surplus to requirements and can go on to be a star in another stable over time. There are umpteen examples of this—the £2,800 purchase Sceptical (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) being just one who has made headlines since being bought from Godolphin and continuing his career for James McAuley and trainer Denis Hogan.

Juddmonte, Shadwell and Godolphin routinely have large drafts catalogued for formal sales as well as conducting private transactions for certain individuals and, while a number of Ballydoyle trainees will be offered at the Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale each autumn, many more will be sold privately throughout the season.

It is not uncommon for there to be multiple runners from Ballydoyle in some of the top races in Europe. The best fillies naturally eventually retire to the Coolmore broodmare band, but only a handful of the very best colts will secure a berth in the stallion yard. Those below that level, however, can present some decent opportunities for other connections, as the recent G2 Derby Italiano victory of Tuscan Gaze (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) highlighted.

The colt, who was bred by Coolmore in partnership with Lady Bamford’s Daylesford Stud, was previously unbeaten in two starts for John Gosden and was bought by jockey-turned-bloodstock agent Freddy Tylicki for Italian-based Mag Horse Racing SRL just weeks before his Classic success.

Jamie Moriarty of Coolmore’s racing office is in regular contact with agents and trainers on the lookout for such prospects. He says, “Some may be of the opinion that we wouldn’t be overjoyed at selling winners like that but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Results like this bolster the relationships we are continually seeking to develop and maintain, and of course there’s also the pedigree update for the horse’s dam and relatives at home. So all in all, we couldn’t be happier for everyone concerned.”

He adds, “Tuscan Gaze’s recent success in the Italian Derby has received some great coverage, and rightly so. I suppose it could be perceived as something of a fairytale, and for none more so than Freddy Tylicki, but in reality we would like to think that this fairytale is played out with increasing regularity.”

There has long been a flow of horses from Ballydoyle to the Australian stable of leading owners Lloyd and Nick Williams, whose thirst to win the Melbourne Cup appears to be unquenchable. Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}) provided the father and son with their sixth victory in the Cup and was a memorable first for Joseph O’Brien, whose stable he has recently rejoined after a stint in Australia under the care of Liam Howley, who now trains the G2 Herbert Power S. winner Yucatan (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Last year’s eye-catching third-place finisher Il Paradiso (Galileo {Ire}), who was just a neck behind the winner Vow And Declare (Aus) (Declaration Of War), has remained in Australia and has joined Chris Waller’s stable after being sold to a syndicate which includes Ozzie Kheir. Among the other Ballydoyle graduates now in Australia are Galileo’s sons Southern France (Ire), who won the G2 Zipping Classic for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, and G1 Caulfied S. winner Cape Of Good Hope (Ire), who is now trained by David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig.

“Many will remember Rekindling and Johannes Vermeer going head-to-head in the Melbourne Cup, two Coolmore horses that had been sold to Australians Lloyd and Nick Williams,” says Moriarty. “The Melbourne Cup provides one of the best examples through the likes of Rekindling, Johannes Vermeer and Il Paradiso, a horse I suspect will be very much in the reckoning again this year.”

He adds, “As we retire only two or three new stallions each year to Coolmore, there are plenty of horses for sale and this presents terrific opportunities for clients old and new to get involved.

“Our team here takes calls and enquiries every day from the most far-reaching countries about prospective sales of racehorses and breeding stock alike. If clients have races they would like to target, be it on turf or dirt, Northern or Southern Hemisphere we will have plenty of options for them. Freddy had a week to find an Italian Derby winner and we were able to work it out.”

Hong Kong has also been a happy hunting ground for former Ballydoyle trainees, with River Dancer (Ire), the Sadler’s Wells half-brother to Dar Re Mi (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}), having won the G1 Audemars Piguet QE II Cup for The Hon. Ronald Arculli following his export from Ireland. Four years later, Archipenko, now the sire of Group 1-winning brothers Time Warp (GB) and Glorious Forever (GB) in Hong Kong, won that same race after he was sold to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and joined Mike de Kock’s team of globetrotters. The same owner-trainer team also won the G1 Hong Kong Cup with Eagle Mountain (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), who was runner-up to Authorized (Ire) in the Derby when trainer by Aidan O’Brien.

A little closer to home, the one-time Derby fancy Amedeo Modigliani (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is now in the stable of Spain’s champion trainer Guillermo Arizkorreta and has won his only start in Spain’s premier mile race, the Gran Premio Claudio Carudel.

“If you look at any of the bigger races across the globe, you will note Coolmore graduates amongst the rolls of honour,” says Moriarty. “Master of Hounds, Mikhail Glinka (GB), Stagelight (Ire) and Viscount Nelson went on to score at the highest levels in Dubai. Joshua Tree (Ire), Ballingarry (Ire), Frost Giant, Tannery (Ire), Heatseeker (Ire) and Brahms were all at the top of their game on the other side of the Atlantic. So whether it’s a Canadian International, a Singapore, Hollywood, Hong Kong or Italian Derby winner you’re looking for, we have been lucky enough to have them through our hands. Not to mention of course the Cheltenham and Grade 1 winners over jumps.”

Ah, yes. For an outfit so focused on winning Europe’s top middle-distance races, there will be plenty among them with sufficient stamina to excel in the National Hunt division, such as G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle winner Ivanovich Gorbatov (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}).

“As the primary focus of Ballydoyle each year is to retire the next Sadler’s Wells or Galileo we would rarely have a gelding in training there, although in plenty of instances there will be improvement to come from these animals when they are gelded,” says Moriarty. “We don’t strictly sell colts only. The broodmare band takes continual management and, like the racehorse string, we can’t keep them all. There are a number of fillies that are offered privately each year. In cases where we have the dam and maybe a sister or two at home we would offer some for sale. This is where some of the best opportunities lie.”

One recent fortunate beneficiary of this is the new owner of Peach Tree (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who was already a Group 3 winner in her own right when sold less than 12 months ago. Since then, her full-sister Love (Ire) has announced herself as arguably the best 3-year-old filly in training.

Another daughter of Galileo was a similarly good purchase for Australian breeder Bob Scarborough, whose purchase of Cabaret (Ire) and her subsequent mating with Invincible Spirit (Ire) resulted in him breeding the 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia (Ire), who was bought by MV Magnier for 340,000gns.

Moriarty adds, “We have since gone back to buy a couple of her progeny, including Magna Grecia and the very promising St Mark’s Basilica who looked a smart sort on his debut last week.”

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This Side Up: D-Day for Baffert’s Coolmore Pair

He’s like the clean-cut, wide-eyed rookie sent into the lines, trying to read the expressions of the relieved troops. What might the likes of Charlatan (Speightstown) and Nadal (Blame) tell this star cadet, as they hand over the trenches, to steel him for the challenges ahead? Cezanne (Curlin) probably thinks they could do with a shave, and shouldn’t be smoking on duty. But then he will notice the medals on their chests, and start to ask himself whether he too will step up; whether he will live up to everything his instructors thought they could see on the parade ground.

Charlatan and Nadal won early battles, of course, before being forced out of the GI Kentucky Derby trail, but their general Bob Baffert has already ordered reinforcements into the breach. Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo) is evidently going after the East’s leading colt next weekend, and meanwhile he deploys Cezanne against the premier sophomore on his home front.

Having previously professed faith in the calm genius of his trainer, we will defer for now what would otherwise seem the obvious concern about Honor A.P. (Honor Code): that he will be required to beat more horses in a single race, come Derby day, than he will have encountered in his whole life outside maiden company. Instead we’ll focus not just on Cezanne, but on another Baffert sophomore who likewise weaves a fascinating sub-plot into an epic Saturday.

Cezanne and Eight Rings (Empire Maker) have very different profiles, to this point, but they do have one important thing in common. The critical tests they undertake, on either coast, will go a long way to determining the yield (or otherwise) on hefty investment made by John Magnier and various partners.

For Magnier, having brought consecutive Triple Crown winners to Ashford out of his barn, has shown his faith in the Baffert program by seeking its next champions at a rather earlier stage of their development.

Cezanne topped the Gulfstream Sale last year, at $3.65 million; and it’s safe to assume that pretty giddy stakes were also required to complete a deal to stand Eight Rings, on his retirement, just days before he lined up for the GI TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. An Eclipse Award was plainly in the offing that day, but he blew what hindsight suggests to have been a golden opportunity and fared no better when resurfacing at Oaklawn in the spring.

Since returning to the worktab, however, Eight Rings has teased his ownership group–a formidable assembly, even before the advent of Coolmore–that he may yet turn things round. In his four latest breezes, he has clocked a quicker time than 209 of 212 other animals going the same distance. And it’s not as though his reputation ever depended only on what he did in the mornings. Juveniles don’t make all in Grade I races, roaring away by six lengths with the eventual class champion toiling in third, unless they have a ton of natural talent.

We know that Thoroughbreds are complicated creatures, seldom with a single lock taking a single key. But if Baffert has figured out where the real Eight Rings has been hiding, his latest comeback in the GI Allen Jerkens S., presented by Runhappy, could yet intrude on back-to-back weekends potentially showcasing sons of Violence–No Parole succeeding Volatile–as the fastest of their respective crops.

Cezanne, for his part, holds rather more appeal for romantics (whose instinct is naturally to root for the underdog) than tends to be the case with sale-toppers. Apart from anything else, we do occasionally need our beliefs regarding pedigree, conformation and so on to work out sufficiently for this business to be sustainable and, if Cezanne is to prove one of the poster boys, then that’s a gratifying prospect for the many friends of the late J.J. Crupi.

Nobody cherished Crupi more than Vinnie Viola of St Elias Stables, who co-bred Cezanne and retained a stake after his sale. Not merely because he acquired Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song) through Crupi as a yearling, and also shared in the success of Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), but primarily because of an exceptional personal rapport.

On losing his friend, just weeks after the Fasig-Tipton sale, Viola’s tribute was pitch-perfect. Anyone can achieve a superficial eloquence by sheer craft, by an intelligent sense for the weight or rhythm of words. But you can only introduce that authenticating, third dimension when you also talk from the heart, as Viola did then. Even as he grieved Crupi, he made him live again. For most of us, even everyday situations tend to leave us only groping towards what we wish to convey. But here was an occasion when the usual poverty of language was rendered equal to the richness of a human life. So while firmly committed to Honor A.P., I do wish Mr. Viola and his partners well with Cezanne in the Shared Belief S.

Besides, he is out of a Bernardini mare. It is only a few days since we celebrated this extraordinarily precocious broodmare sire, but already yet another of his daughters has since produced a Grade I winner in Paris Lights (Curlin). This year, of course, Bernardini also has a colt in play for the Derby–and the people behind Art Collector certainly command respect and affection, too, as we’ll be reiterating in the days ahead.

In the meantime Cezanne can seek a chink in the Honor A.P. armour that seems likely to close up once he gets a chance to use that low, unrelenting stride over a longer distance. Whatever he may lack in seasoning, Honor A.P. at least seems sure to relish the stamina demands of the Churchill cavalry charge.

One way or another, it’s a day when Coolmore’s chips with Baffert are piled pretty high. Eight Rings was named for the Super Bowl accomplishments of football coach Bill Belichick, who was apparently also in mind (though I’m straying well beyond home ground here) in Bon Jovi’s Bounce: ‘I’ll take the hit but not the fall’ etc. Though some may have counted Eight Rings out, this is the day he could well come bouncing back again.

But it’s a famous line from Belichick himself that comes to mind with Cezanne: “Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling.”

I don’t know what they engraved on Crupi’s tomb instead, but that would surely have met the case just as well.

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Taking Stock: Sires and Racing Environments

The advent of Twitter over the last decade or so has made racing results quickly accessible to fans and observers anywhere in the world, so much so that it seems that a greater number of people in the U.S. are more familiar with European racing than ever before. Back when I was a kid, we’d have to wait for the Blood-Horse magazine to arrive in the mail to scan the 10-day old European results in the agate type in the back pages. Now, we get a video of a race on Twitter minutes after the finish, and you’ve got quite a few people on the platform discussing those races with as much passion and knowledge as they do racing here. Moreover, these European visuals have exposed more Americans to the glaring differences in racing environments between here and there.

To begin with, the top European races are contested on turf instead of dirt. And more importantly, there’s a greater variation in distances, courses, and racing styles over there, as the videos of the one-mile G1 Sussex S. on Wednesday from the U.K. and the two-mile G1 Goodwood Cup a day earlier from the same venue pointedly illustrated. There are no Grade l races in this country at two miles, and neither are there Grade l races at five furlongs here as there are in Europe, where 12 furlongs is considered a “middle distance” and the cadence of races is markedly slower earlier, no matter the distances–which are clearly delineated at sprints at five and six furlongs, mile events, 10-13 furlong races, and extreme staying events at a mile and three-quarters up to two-and-a-half miles.

In contrast, almost all top races here seem to hover within a narrow band of seven-to-nine furlongs over dirt ovals and are contested frenetically from the start. Also, 12-furlong horses here are considered “stayers” or “plodders,” and though we do have a graded turf program that caters to horses over 10-12 furlongs, many of whom are ex-European imports, the winners of those races are rarely sought after as stallion prospects like our nine-furlong dirt runners and 10-furlong Gl Kentucky Derby winners.

Epsom Derbys

This disconnect between the racing environments of the U.S. and Europe has been particularly pronounced since 2000, though the trend was evident in the 1990s, and it’s directly related to the types of stallions that find favor here versus there. Since North American-based Northern Dancer exploded in Europe with Nijinsky in 1970, Europeans, particularly Coolmore, have collected his sons, and Coolmore hit the mother lode with the 1984 G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Sadler’s Wells, whose sons Galileo (Ire), a G1 Epsom Derby and Irish Derby winner, and Montjeu (Ire), winner of the G1 Irish Derby and Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) back when it was still run over a mile and a half, have dominated European Classics during the same time frame that N. American-bred influence was waning in Europe.

In fact, it may come as a surprise to some on Twitter who ardently follow European racing nowadays–many of whom I’d hazard a guess are younger than 50–that N. American-breds at one time ran roughshod over some of Europe’s greatest races, including the Epsom Derby. During the 1970s, for example, Nijinsky (Northern Dancer), Mill Reef (Never Bend), Roberto (Hail to Reason), Empery (Vaguely Noble {Ire}), and The Minstrel (Northern Dancer) won the prestigious mile-and-a-half Classic, followed in the 1980s by Henbit (Hawaii {SAf}), Golden Fleece (Nijinsky), Teenoso (Youth), Secreto (Northern Dancer), Shahrastani (Nijinsky), and Nashwan (Blushing Groom {Fr}). Things slowed a bit in the 1990s, with Erhaab (Chief’s Crown), Lammtarra (Nijinsky), and Benny the Dip (Silver Hawk), and by the aughts the Americans were limited to just Kris Kin (Kris S.), who won the Blue Riband in 2003. Since then, Galileo and Montjeu have between them accounted for nine European-bred winners of the race, while their sons New Approach (Ire) (Galileo) and Pour Moi (Ire) (Montjeu) have sired two others.

Northern Dancer’s son Danzig also established a foothold in Europe that remains strong through today. North Light (Ire), the winner of the Epsom Derby the year after Kris Kin, was by Danehill, an outstanding and influential son of Danzig; and two other winners since then, Sea the Stars (Ire) and Golden Horn (GB), were by Cape Cross (Ire), a son of the Danzig sprinter Green Desert; and Sea the Stars sired Harzand (Ire), giving the Danzig line four winners of the Classic since 2003. Though Danzig’s European presence is primarily based around milers and sprinters to Sadler’s Wells’s main influence in the mile-and-a-half races, you’ll note that Cape Cross and Sea the Stars have made this branch of Danzig into players at European middle distances, and Sea the Stars has even ventured farther into extreme-stamina territory.

In total since the last U.S.-bred winner of the Epsom Derby in 2003, the Northern Dancer line through Sadler’s Wells and Danzig has accounted for 15 of the 17 winners, with only Sir Percy (GB) (Mark of Esteem {Ire}, who traces to Mill Reef) and Workforce (GB) (King’s Best, a son of the Mr. Prospector horse Kingmambo) breaking up the monopoly.

Of course, there are many other branches of Northern Dancer that have had success through the decades and are still successful in Europe, but Sadler’s Wells and Danzig are the stars, and they’ve combined successfully in pedigrees, back and forth, to keep the Northern Dancer locomotive hurtling forwards. Frankel (GB) (Galileo), the top young sire in Europe and his 22-year-old sire’s heir apparent, is from a Danehill mare and is a product of the Sadler’s Wells/Danzig cross.

The pedigree of this year’s Irish Derby winner Santiago (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}), who was third in the Goodwood Cup on Tuesday, employs this same cross, but with even more doses of Northern Dancer: his sire is by Montjeu and his dam’s sire is Cape Cross, which is Sadler’s Wells/Danzig, but in between and around them in his first five generations are the top Northern Dancer sires Lyphard and Nureyev, along with another dose of Danzig, making Santiago 4x5x5x5x5 to Northern Dancer and 4×4 to Danzig. There’s no question European pedigrees are getting saturated with Northern Dancer blood, but so far with little ill effect.

Stradivarius (Ire), who won the Goodwood Cup for the fourth consecutive year and is the premier stayer in Europe in races up to two-and-a-half miles, is by Sea the Stars, who happens to be a half-brother to Galileo, and is inbred 5x4x5 to Northern Dancer through Danzig, Sadler’s Wells, and Lyphard. Stradivarius’s pedigree illustrates how a branch of the Danzig line evolved gradually from speed to stamina through the generations in the sequence of Green Desert to Cape Cross to Sea the Stars, and it did so only because the racing environment in Europe allowed it the opportunity. This isn’t an option in America, where to succeed as a sire requires consistent high-class speed in the seven-to-nine-furlong Grade l dirt races, with occasional strikes in the Classics at up to a mile and three-sixteenths, a mile and a quarter, and a mile and a half.

Mohaather (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), the winner of the one-mile Sussex S. on Wednesday, is also a member of the Green Desert branch of Danzig as Stradivarius is, but his sire is by Oasis Dream (GB) (Green Desert), who tends to get more sprinter-milers and stays truer to the ethos of Danzig.

The Sussex was notable for another reason, too. In the beaten field were two American-bred Classic winners this year. Third-place finisher Siskin (First Defence), undefeated in five starts entering the race, won the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, and Kameko (Kitten’s Joy), fourth, had won the G1 2000 Guineas. The duo were the first American-bred European Classic winners since Senga (Blame) won the G1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) in 2017–and she was, I believe, the first since Arctic Cosmos (North Light) won the G1 St. Leger in 2010–and are harbingers that American-breds might once again start to have an impact on the European Classics, particularly as a newer generation of American owners are getting more smitten with the idea of racing in Europe.

American Sires

Kitten’s Joy is that rare American-based turf sire who’s succeeded against the odds, but he came up through the all-weather era and benefited from a subsequent increase in turf racing to lead the N. American general sire list in 2013. Since then, he’s attracted some European patronage and has had a string of European successes, led by the late European champion and Group 1 winner Roaring Lion and including others such as champion and Group 1 winner Hawkbill, French Group 2 winner Taareef, and current Irish Group 3 winner Crossfirehurricane in addition to Kameko.

War Front, one of Danzig’s last sons, is another with a sparkling track record in Europe, where he’s been particularly effective with his juveniles and at sprint and mile distances. He’s been bred to quite a few Galileo mares by Coolmore and is probably sitting on a Guineas winner down the line.

Aside from them, however, there aren’t too many other American-based sires that are sought after in Europe, but that might change.

Siskin’s pedigree offers the first clue. First Defence (Unbridled’s Song), a Grade l winner at seven furlongs on dirt, is now at stud in Saudi Arabia, but Siskin’s breakthrough in a European Classic was the first for the Unbridled line, which has been so effective on American dirt but nowhere near so on European turf. Siskin’s success now suggests new hope for the line, and that bodes well for Coolmore’s Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), who’s from the same line by way of Empire Maker (Unbridled) instead of Unbridled’s Song (Unbridled).

So far, American Pharoah is showing a distinct penchant for the turf. From his first crop of 3-year-olds he’s represented by nine black-type winners and six group/graded winners, most of them on turf. He didn’t come up with a first-crop European Classic winner this spring and summer–neither did Northern Dancer; Nijinsky was in his second crop–but American Pharoah does have a dirt colt in Japan who’s eligible for the Kentucky Derby in the fall.

Coolmore stands American Pharoah in Kentucky. The Irish-based farm has actually bet heavily on two American Triple Crown winners, the other being Justify (Scat Daddy)–the two best American 3-year-old champions since Sunday Silence.

Sunday Silence, based in Japan, and Northern Dancer were two Derby/Preakness winners who changed the face of racing in Japan and Europe, respectively, and left sons to continue their work. American Pharoah and Justify, both of whom were even more accomplished in the grueling Triple Crown than them, will be given their own chances to succeed in Europe. Perhaps the European climate will be just right for them, especially with Montjeu gone, Galileo aging, and voids opening for another infusion of American blood.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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‘I Am Very Lucky’: Donnacha O’Brien Saddles Fancy Blue To Second Group 1 Win In Nassau

Fancy Blue was Donnacha O'Brien's first runner as a trainer in the UK and gave the Irish handler reason to celebrate as she became his first UK winner in the G1 Qatar Nassau Stakes at Goodwood on Thursday. It was a second success at the top level for the daughter of Deep Impact, following her win in the G1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) on 5 July.

It was favorite Magic Wand (Aidan O'Brien IRE/Frankie Dettori) who took the seven runners along. She continued to lead until facing a strong challenge from Fancy Blue two furlongs out. Fancy Blue took the lead entering the final furlong and then had to see off the strong late challenge of One Voice (Jessica Harrington/Tom Marquand). Fancy Blue held on by a neck, with Nazeef (John Gosden/Jim Crowley) staying on for third, another two and three-quarter lengths behind.

Donnacha O'Brien said: “That was a lovely performance from Fancy Blue.

“Fancy Blue is unbelievable, and it is massive. You never believe you will get one like her in your first year of training. When you have the pedigrees that Coolmore have, you always have a chance and I am very lucky.

“I was given Fancy Blue as a yearling and you don't really expect these kind of things, but when they come along, it is more unlikely that the majority will be up to this sort of Group One class, but you do right by them so that they will fulfill their full potential and thankfully she has reached that class.

“It is unbelievable that I get a filly like her in my first year. People go a lifetime without getting a filly like her. I am no under no illusions as to how lucky I am, and I just need to do the best I can with her.

“I was looking after her as a yearling and I was responsible for her but I didn't have my licence, so she was not under my name.

“Ryan is employed by Coolmore and that is why he rode Fancy Blue.

“I was hopeful of a good performance due to the weight she was getting, and this race fitted in well after her win in the French Oaks.

“Every race she has won she has had to battle for and work for it. Jessie's filly [One Voice] came at her today and if she had got into a proper battle with her, I think she would have found more. She is a very tough, high-class filly who has shown how good she is today.

“We came here today unsure as to what she would think of the ground. I was speaking to Dad during the race that she was swapping and changing her lead leg coming down the hill. She didn't look particularly comfortable and I think a little bit of juice in the ground won't be any harm for her in the future.

“We will give her a little break now. She has had a busy start to the year. We might look at Irish Champions Weekend to bring her back. That could be in the Matron which I know is back down in trip or in the Irish Champion Stakes. She will then go to Arc weekend where she has the option of the Prix de l'Opera or the Arc itself.

“After that, it will probably be the Breeders' Cup or a trip to Japan for the Queen Elizabeth where there is big money on offer over a mile and three, and there is a bonus for winning the Prix de Diane.

“We're not really sure what is going on with America at the minute, but they are the options at the minute.

“All the people in Japan are massive supporters of racing and I know myself from riding Saxon Warrior and him being by Deep Impact that we got a good following from the Japanese fans. It is always somewhere I have wanted to go and whilst it is not set in stone, she could go there.

“Arc weekend fits nicely so whether it is the Opera or the Arc, we will sit down and speak with the owners. Taking in the Vermeille could maybe be a possibility, but we will have to see. There are a lot of good races around and I think she would be competitive anywhere from a mile to a mile and a half. With a fillies' allowance in the Arc, I wouldn't be writing her off either so we'll have to see how strong the Opera is and Coolmore could have Love for the Arc too. Nothing is set in stone.

“Love has a higher rating at the minute, but my filly Fancy Blue showed in France that she is suited to that style of racing. She relaxes and can quicken and whether Love can do it in the same – she looks like she is suited to a more galloping track like Epsom or Newmarket off a fast pace. Although she might not have been as impressive as Love yet, I think she has shown attributes that maybe Love hasn't just yet – that's all thoughts at the minute.

“If you had told me with everything that is going on in the world that I would have a dual Group One winner I wouldn't have believed you. Everything is a bit strange and I certainly wasn't expecting this.”

Discussing the difference between riding and training Group One winners, O'Brien continued: “It's strange. They are different and I think you get a different kick out of it. When you are riding, you feel under pressure and want to do good for the horse and give the horse a fair chance.

“When you are training, I nearly feel pressure for the guys who are working with her every day and working in the yard – you want her to achieve her best for them. They are the ones putting the hard yards in.

“They are the ones you are thinking of when you are training whereas when you are riding, you kind of just nearly think of yourself.

“I liked her last year. When she was going to her maiden which she won at Naas, I thought she would run well but I didn't fancy her to win it. She quickened up really nicely and gave me a lovely feel. Every time we have stepped her up in class, she has pleasantly surprised us, and she just continues to do so – she is just a filly who wants to please and she is improving the whole time. Hopefully, she continues to do that.

“I train at David Wachman's yard [in County Tipperary] and this is great. Last year that was really a satellite yard and I was training her.”

Ryan Moore, enjoying a 19.6/1 day three double following the earlier success of Mogul and also recording his 50th career success at the Qatar Goodwood Festival, said: “I think there were some solid horses in there – Nazeef had done nothing wrong all year. I know very well how good Magic Wand is and she is proven in the best mile and a quarter races in America, Hong Kong and Australia, and obviously Deirdre (the 2019 Qatar Nassau Stakes winner) was in there. My filly [Fancy Blue] showed that she is very straightforward and has a very good attitude. She is tough.

“This filly has done nothing wrong. She ran a good race in the Irish Guineas and she has won a Diane, and a Diane is very hard to win, and now she has beaten the older fillies, and you have got to be pleased with what she has done so far. I am sure Donnacha [O'Brien, trainer] will get her home, see how she is and make a plan for the future.

“She was happy enough today on this ground, I would just say that she just wouldn't want extremes of either.”

Speaking about his success on Mogul in the G3 John Pearce Racing Gordon Stakes earlier in the afternoon, Moore said: “Mogul has improved from both of his races this year. On form it was a very solid race; everything in there had shown form this year. He traveled nicely, and I was happy with what he did in the last furlong and a half – he put his head down and really wanted it. I thought it was a good, even pace; we just sat a little bit back off them and my horse was comfortable. He is a mile and a half horse really – I think that's his trip. I think he could end up being a Grand Prix [de Paris] horse, which is a bit later this year.”

The post ‘I Am Very Lucky’: Donnacha O’Brien Saddles Fancy Blue To Second Group 1 Win In Nassau appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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