Tag: Crispy Cat

Affirmative Lady Launches AMO Racing’s U.S. Operation

The GII Gulfstream Park Oaks brought a new contestant into the GI Kentucky Oaks picture in victress Affirmative Lady. The connections of the blossoming daughter of Arrogate are newcomers not only to the Oaks trail, but to racing in the U.S. After launching its American stable two years ago, AMO Racing celebrated its first graded stakes win in the States with Affirmative Lady's score on Saturday.

Founded by football agent and businessman Kia Joorabchian, AMO Racing has proven to be a force on the other side of the Atlantic in recent years. Top performers are led by last year's G2 July S. winner Persian Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), who is new to stud at Tally-Ho Stud this year, plus multiple Group 1-placed Mojo Star (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) and a host of Group 2 winners including Hello You (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}).

Joorabchian is based in London, but he made sure to be on site at Gulfstream for Affirmative Lady's two-length victory.

“It was probably the best moment that we've had in U.S. racing so far,” he said. “I knew she was not going to be a favorite, but I flew to Miami to see her run. It's a long way for me to go, but in my heart of hearts I knew she would pull off a great performance. She has so much ability and when you watch her work, you can see it. ”

A $210,000 Keeneland September buy, Affirmative Lady was among the first yearlings that AMO Racing purchased in America. Joorabchian remembers finding the filly well because, while he and his agent Robson Aguiar loved her at first sight, not many other buyers were interested.

“When I bought her, everyone was telling me that it wasn't a great buy,” he recalled. “No one really thought much of her other than Robson and me. She looked a little bit backward at the time, but she was very sweet. Her composure and the way she walked was amazing. We knew she wouldn't be early because she wasn't quite on her toes moving the way you would expect a fast, sharp 2-year-old.”

Just as Arrogate didn't truly blossom until later in his career, Joorabchian hypothesized that his new purchase would need plenty of time to develop. He knew he needed to find a patient conditioner and decided that Graham Motion was the perfect candidate.

“Graham really liked her from the word go,” Joorabchian said. “I think it's a credit to Graham. He took something that maybe wasn't the hip, trendy kind of horse. We actually paid a considerable amount for her at the time because Arrogate wasn't popular. I think with the Arrogates, early in their career people thought he was disappointing. But he's proving to be a great stallion and it's really unfortunate that he's not around because she is special.”

Affirmative Lady was winless in two starts at Keeneland last fall, but she touted her potential when she ran a close second to Julia Shining (Curlin) in the GII Demoiselle S. After she ran third in her sophomore debut in the Busada S. at Aqueduct, Motion sent the filly to Gulfstream. She broke her maiden there with first-time blinkers on Feb. 26. before she was sent off at 8-1 in the Gulfstream Park Oaks.

Following the victory, Motion said that the more he watches replays of the race, the more he is impressed with his trainee's performance.

Crispy Cat wins the Texas Glitter S. | Lauren King

“There were moments during the race where I was concerned,” Motion admitted. “I thought between the half-mile pole and the three-eighths pole that she might have been struggling a bit. But I've watched the race a couple of times now and once she got in gear, I thought she really came on and got away from them. She just toughs it out. When I asked Luis about it, he said he was never concerned. He thought he always had the horse, which reassured me. I think she wants to go farther. I believe a mile and a sixteenth is too short for her.”

While the Gulfstream Park Oaks was the biggest victory so far this year for AMO Racing, they've had plenty else to celebrate recently. One week before Affirmative Lady's win, they had their first stakes winner in America with Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire}) in the Texas Glitter S. The colt was a Group 2-placed juvenile in England before he transferred to Jorge Delgado for his 3-year-old season.

Also last Saturday, AMO Racing had the winner of the first juvenile contest of the year in Ireland with Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). On the same day, 3-year-old Mischievous Doll (Into Mischief) broke her maiden at Turfway Park for Paulo Lobo.

“It was a fantastic week from Ireland to Miami to Kentucky,” said  Joorabchian. “Affirmative Lady was the height of it. We've been very patient with her and it was one of the highlights of my racing career because it was the horse that no one really wanted, but that we loved.”

2023 is already AMO Racing USA's biggest year yet and the operation is just getting started. Joorabchian said that their string here is upwards of three times the size of what it has been the past two years. Nearly 20 horses purchased here are aiming for the starting gate this year and another 20 are shipping in from Europe.

“I'm hoping that within the next few years, we will be pretty balanced between having the same number of horses here as we do in Europe, or maybe even more here,” said Joorabchian.

Asked about the appeal of racing in the U.S., Joorabchian explained that he was drawn to better competition and more prize money.

“U.S. racing is moving upwards,” he said. “The competition is much tougher because you have much bigger prize money. If you do well here, you're really rewarded. If you do well in the U.K., it's more about the value that you're creating in your horses rather than the prize money. I think the competition is much better here as well. You're competing against more people across the spectrum. As an owner like me, I want to compete with more people and be more on level terms and I think the U.S. creates much more competition.”

AMO Racing USA horses are gearing up for 2023 campaigns with trainers all across the country.

Jorge Delgado trains recent stakes winner Crispy Cat, who Joorabchian said is pointing toward the Keeneland race meet and perhaps after that, a trip to Ascot. Delgado's string also includes Olivia Darling (Palace) a 4-year-old filly who ran second in the Minaret S. at Tampa Bay in February; New York Thunder (Nyquist), who won his first two starts at Gulfstream late last year as a juvenile and is now training at Keeneland; and Kingmax (Ire) (Kingman (GB}), a Group 3-placed 4-year-old colt looking to make his U.S. debut in the coming weeks.

Kia Joorabchian | Tattersalls

Paulo Lobo's fleet of AMO horses includes recent maiden winner Mischievous Doll (Into Mischief) and Thunder Love (GB) (Profitable {Ire}), who came to America last year as a 3-year-old and scored a win at Turfway in February. Hurricane J (Nyquist) ran seventh in last year's GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile after two consecutive juvenile wins, but was unplaced in his sophomore debut in February. He now looks to get back to his winning ways in the Lafayette S. at Keeneland on Friday.

“We still have really high hopes for him,” said Joorabchian. “We just think he needed a little more time and I'm hoping this next race will be a lot better.”

Wesley Ward has added a few AMO European exports to his stable with Lady Hollywood (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), the winner of the G3 Prix d'Arenberg last September who finished a credible fifth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, as well as three-time group winner Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}).

“We have a really exciting group of horses,” reflected Joorabchian. “Racing is something that I have a passion for and the passion is just getting bigger and bigger. I hope we can achieve some fun things because we're putting a lot behind it.”

Despite many Group 2 and Group 3 wins and quite a few Group 1 placings, AMO Racing is still searching for its first Group/Grade I victory. Their next chance might be on the first Friday in May.

Motion, who will be will be seeking his first Kentucky Oaks win, said that Affirmative Lady came out of last weekend's race in fine shape.

“She got a lot of dirt in her eyes and had a sore eye the next morning, but it looks good now,” he said. “She'll stay in Florida for a few weeks and probably ship to Keeneland around the 17th and we'll breeze her that weekend. The timing has been great. To be able to give her five more weeks until the Oaks really couldn't be better.”

Joorabchian said he has not yet been to the Kentucky Derby or the Oaks, but added that he is looking forward to this year's experience with Affirmative Lady and hoping for many more trips there in the future.

“When you're racing at the level that we're at now, your dream is to get to the Oak and the Derby, so this is going to be a very special moment,” he said. “We have put this filly through some tough tasks and she has come through in all of them. She has already hit her expectations and everything now is a bonus.”

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Seven Days: A Feast Fit For a Queen

A World Cup meeting needs world-class runners plus a global spread of results. This much and more was delivered by the 27th Dubai World Cup and supporting races at Meydan on Saturday.

With 26 runners on the night, it was always a given that Japan would feature prominently and, in an exhibition of excellence that we are now becoming accustomed to, they led all comers, just as they had in Riyadh last month. The performance of Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) alone was pretty dramatic, coming from tailed off to a rallying victory in the big race itself, but all else pales when compared to the extraordinary Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}).

There have been some classy winners of the Dubai Sheema Classic over the years but none has cruised over the line with such imperious ease as the 4-year-old, who was Japan's Horse of the Year in 2022. 

We may be only three months into 2023, but Equinox has quickly become almost everybody's horse of this year. His connections appear to have ruled out a bid for the Arc, with the Breeders' Cup Turf a more likely international option for later in the year. Those of us on this side of the pond can only hope they change their mind and consider Ascot in July for the King George and Queen Elizabeth S.

Once again it was a major meeting which showcased the rewards to be reaped when keeping horses in training beyond their 2- or 3-year-old seasons. Leaving aside the  UAE Derby, Equinox was the youngest winner of the night, with horses aged five, six and seven claiming two victories apiece. 

Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) were born a day apart in February 2016, and have mustered 52 runs and 19 wins between them. Both may be a little under-appreciated, though surely not by their connections, considering that the former has triumphed in exactly half of his 20 starts and accumulated almost £6.5 million in prize-money, largely through his historic hat-trick in the Dubai Turf. The well-named Broome (out of Sweepstake) has taken his connections on a merry dance from Ireland to England, France, America, Japan, Hong Kong, Qatar, and now Dubai. He has also overcome a fractured shin from  a kick by another horse after running in the Japan Cup of November 2021. Quick thinking and treatment by vet Kanichi Kusano, who is now the Japan Racing Association's representative in London, meant that Broome was able to resume racing the following May, winning the G2 Hardwicke S. on his second run back after the break, and now the G2 Dubai Gold Cup.

A chance outing on Sunday took this correspondent to the ancestral home of the original Lord North. Kirtling Tower, not far from Newmarket, is the remaining part of what was once Kirtling Hall and its vast estate across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. A financial advisor and treasurer of sorts to Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell when it came to the dissolution of the monasteries, Lord North, who died in 1564, is entombed at Kirtling Church. Some 14 years later, his son Roger, the second Lord North, entertained Elizabeth I at Kirtling Hall.

Legend has it that the among the long list of food served to the Queen and fellow guests during their three-day stay were 2,316 pigeons, 446 quails, 221 cows' tongues, feet and udders, 110 bitterns, 99 dottrells, 96 rabbits, 67 sheep, 34 pigs, 32 swans, 28 plovers, four stags, and one crane. This was all washed down with 74 hogsheads of beer, six hogsheads of claret and six gallons of spiced wine known as hippocras. It makes the Federation of Bloodstock Agents' annual lunch seem positively abstemious. 

Saudi, Dubai, Next Stop Kentucky

It is hard to get away from Sunday Silence in the Japanese sire lists, and he featured as the paternal great grandsire of both Ushba Tesoro and Equinox. The 1989 Kentucky Derby winner also pops up on the dam's side in the third generation of the G2 UAE Derby winner Derma Sotogake (Jpn), who will now try to emulate his notable ancestor by heading to Churchill Downs on the first weekend of May.

The Shadai-bred Derma Sotogake, who was also third in the G2 Saudi Derby, is the first major international winner from the debut crop of Mind your Biscuits, who ended 2022 as the leading first-season sire in Japan. In his racing days, the 10-year-old son of Posse landed back-to-back runnings of the G1 Golden Shaheen as well as winning the GI Malibu S. at three, and he looks an inspired purchase for the Shadai Stallion Station. His pedigree appears to be a natural fit for mares from the Sunday Silence/Deep Impact line and, as a great grandson of Deputy Minister, his is a sire-line which has succeeded in Japan through French Deputy and his son Kurofune. The latter, himself a grey, features most notably as the sire of the pure white Sodashi (Jpn), winner of the 2021 G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas).

Amo Racing's Season Off to a Flyer

The 2023 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up was represented by its first winner on Saturday before the sale had even taken place. Formerly known as Lot 153 but now racing as Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), the full-brother to G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner and Haras de Bouquetot sire Wooded (Ire) won Ireland's first juvenile contest of the year at the Curragh.

Bought as a yearling last August at Arqana for €165,000, he was signed for by breeze-up consignor Robson Aguiar, who presumably had plenty of involvement in the colt's preparation for his debut for owners Amo Racing and Giselle de Aguiar and trainer Adrian Murray. The same triumvirate is also involved in Lightening Army (GB), a juvenile from the first crop of Soldier's Call (GB) who has an entry at Dundalk on Friday.

By Saturday evening, Amo Racing had notched its first stakes winner in America when Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire}), who had also been selected by Aguiar as a yearling, won the Texas Glitter S. at Gulfstream Park. A decent juvenile last term for Michael O'Callaghan, Crispy Cat won on debut and notched several black-type places, including an unlucky third in the G2 Norfolk S. He later filled the same position in the G2 Flying Childers, and he could well have a fruitful year ahead of him in the States, where is one of a team of around 30 horses for Amo Racing.

The Amo colours could also be seen in Classic action this year as among the entries for the Irish 2,000 Guineas is the G2 Beresford S. winner Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}), who has moved from O'Callaghan to the Gosdens.

Murphy Skilled in Both Spheres

Amy Murphy has made a habit of targeting French races in recent years and her approach paid dividends across the codes last week with two markedly different winners.

At Saint-Cloud on Thursday, the versatile trainer saddled the first winner for Coolmore's freshman sire Magna Grecia (Ire) when Myconian (Ire) won the Prix de Debut for Daniel Macauliffe and Anoj Don. Murphy's husband Lemos de Souza has been a key part of her training establishment from the outset and he had selected the colt for €27,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.

For sheer emotion, however, nothing could top the trainer's second French victory of the week. Now 10, Kalashnikov (Ire) (Kalanisi {Ire}) had been an early star for Murphy and headed into the 2018 Cheltenham Festival with four wins to his credit. He was beaten just a neck when second in the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle and went on to become the trainer's first Grade 1 winner the following year in the Manifesto Novices' Chase at Aintree. 

Having had almost two years away from the track while recovering from a tendon injury, Kalashnikov, who races in the colours of Murphy's father Paul, returned to action on Boxing Day. On Sunday, he recorded his eighth victory in the Prix Hubert de Navailles at Auteuil, reducing his trainer, who also rides him every day, to tears.

Globetrotting Murzabayev Off the Mark for Fabre

We may struggle to spell his name correctly but be prepared to hear and see plenty more of Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, the Kazakhstan-born, four-time German champion jockey, who rode his first winner for his new boss Andre Fabre at Fontainebleau on Monday. 

Having race-ridden in both in his native country and the Czech Republic, Murzabayev was initially connected to Andreas Wohler following his move to Germany in 2017. He later joined Peter Schiergen, for whom he won last year's G1 Deutsches Derby on Sammarco (Ire) and G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern aboard Tunnes (Ger). A further breakthrough came during this winter's stint in Japan, where he partnered Dura Erede (Jpn) to land the G1 Hopeful S. among his 21 winners in the country.

Fabre initially called him up ride Mare Australis (Ire) in last year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and the 30-year-old was announced as the French trainer's retained jockey earlier this month. On Monday, Palais Du Louvre (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) became the duo's first winner. He is unlikely to be the last.

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Seven Days: The Price Of Progress

Even at this early stage of the season, we can be forgiven for mentally fast-forwarding to the first weekend of June at Epsom. It is after all the best weekend of the year, featuring the best race of the year. 

There are plans afoot in Newmarket – plans being mooted by the Jockey Club, no less – to dig up one of the best turf gallops on the Heath to install a new all-weather racecourse and training facility. At a time when there's concern as to having enough horses to fill races in the over-stuffed fixture lift–one which is already heavily reliant on all-weather fixtures–it seems a rather tone deaf approach from an operation whose raison d'être is supposedly the preservation of horseracing and all its glorious heritage.

Since attending a presentation of the Jockey Club's plans in Newmarket last week, and while watching our small string of horses skip over that perfect turf gallop in question on a beautiful spring morning a few days later, my thoughts have turned to how to oppose this idea. Lying in front of a bulldozer may be taking it a bit too far but considering the vast expanse of the Heath avoided being wrecked during World War II to provide food while the island was under siege, it would be a great sadness to see a chunk of it lost all these years later, even if it is for a racing-related scheme.

I feel the same chest-tightening dismay whenever I read a column suggesting that the Derby should be shortened in distance. Why? Having horses run a mile and a half is no hardship. In fact, it's a mere sprint compared to the four-mile heats of yore. It is of course progress that has brought us to the current Classic distances but we must beware any further limiting of the programme in the name of so-called progress. Where will it end? It seems reasonable to assume that it ends with the loss of one of the most absorbing elements of racing in this part of the world, which is the diverse nature of the Flat tests, for sprinters through to stayers and everything in between.

That should remain reflected in the range of stallions available to breeders, as it currently is. While being fully cognisant of the reasons behind commercial breeders' desire to breed for the market in which they wish to participate, a look at the range of yearlings buyers in Europe in recent years offer plenty of cause for hope that not everyone is looking for an early, fast horse. Add to that the fact that of the world's 22 top-rated races last year, only one was a sprint (Australia's TJ Smith S.) and one more was run at a mile (Ascot's Queen Elizabeth S.). The remainder were  10- to 12-furlong races, and breeding horses capable of getting that sort of trip should surely therefore continue to be the primary aim.

The rise of Galileo (Ire) as a supersire has, up to a point, helped to prop up the Derby in recent years, and as his influence wanes, in the first generation at least, it is heartening to see other Derby winners coming to the fore. In fact, the current top three in the betting for this year – Luxembourg (Ire), Reach For The Moon (GB) and Point Lonsdale (Ire) – are sons of the Derby winners Camelot (GB), Sea The Stars (Ire) and Australia (GB) respectively. Reason enough, surely, to give due credence to the horses good enough to pass the unique test of this special race when they end up at stud.

The Ascent Of Piz Badile 

Bar some notes from recent stable visits, most of this year's Classic contenders remain firmly under wraps and in barracks. One to have shown his hand over the weekend is Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire}), who rallied tenaciously to hold off Buckaroo (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in a battle between the O'Brien brothers to win the G3 Ballysax S. The race has been won 11 times by their father Aidan with such great names as Galileo himself, High Chaparral (Ire), Yeats (Ire), and Fame And Glory (GB).

Joseph O'Brien landed the 2017 running of the Balllysax with future Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}), but this year it was Donnacha's turn, with the Niarchos family's regally-bred Piz Badile, who became the first stakes winner for his sire Ulysses, a son of two Epsom stars in Galileo and the Oaks winner Light Shift (Kingmambo). 

We looked at this family recently in a feature on Ulysses and his close relation Cloth Of Stars (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who has his first juvenile runners this season. Piz Badile, who takes his name from a mountain in the Swiss Alps, has a double dose of these illustrious genes, being inbred to Lingerie (GB), by another Derby winner in Shirley Heights (GB), and whose G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup-winning daughter Shiva (Jpn) (Hector Protector) in turn produced Piz Badile's dam, the Listed winner and Group 2-placed That Which Is Not (Elusive Quality).

Enable's Family To The Fore

Andre Fabre could have an embarrassment of riches in the 3-year-old fillies' division this year with the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Zellie (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Sea The Sky (Ger) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), and the promising Raclette (GB) (Frankel {GB}) among his Classic hopes. This group also extends to Agave (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), one of three winners for the trainer at Saint-Cloud on Saturday when extending her unbeaten run to three in the G3 Prix Penelope. 

Like Raclette, Agave is a Juddmonte homebred, emanating from a family which has brought the operation much success in recent seasons via its most celebrated member, Enable (GB). Agave's dam Contribution (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) is Enable's half-sister and broke her maiden over 1m7f at Maisons-Laffitte as a 3-year-old as well as finishing third in the G2 Prix de Pomone. 

With such stamina hints on her page, and having already won the Listed Prix Rose de Mai over 2,000m last month, it was no surprise to hear that Agave may go straight to the G1 Prix Saint-Alary at the end of May. A nomination for the Oaks, which closes on Tuesday, would also not be out of place. 

Both group races on Saint-Cloud's Saturday card fell to the offspring of Dubawi, with the extremely likeable The Revenant (GB) adding yet another win to his tally, which now stands at 12 from his 19 starts, as well as five placed finishes.

There could hardly be a more consistent horse in training, particularly when he gets his favoured soft ground. The 7-year-old's victory in the G3 Prix Edmond Blanc was his sixth group win, that sextet including the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. of 2020.

Sly And The Family Rock

It is 16 years since Pam Sly notched the biggest success of her career when saddling Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) to win the 1000 Guineas. The Classic heroine, who was retained as a broodmare, has been a stalwart for the Sly family and continues to give the stable plenty of cause for cheer.

Sly has had just two runners on the turf this season, and not only are they both winners, but Dark Spec (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Astral Beau (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}) scored with 40 minutes of each other at Leicester on Friday and are a son and grand-daughter of Speciosa respectively. 

Dark Spec, now seven, must have tried the patience of his trainer, who bred and races him in partnership with her son Michael and Dr Tom Davies. Having made four starts as a 2-year-old, he was then off the track for almost four years until resuming last summer. Persistence has paid off, and he won at Pontefract on his final start of last season and again on his resumption at Leicester off a mark of 77. While he was sent off favourite on Friday, his 3-year-old 'niece' Astral Beau was one of the outsiders of the field at 50/1 for her debut in the seven-furlong novice event, but posted a professional performance to hint at plenty more to come. Her dam Asteroidea (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was Speciosa's third foal and won over a mile and a half.

With the stable in such form, it is worth keeping an eye on the progress of Eileendover (GB) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}), another of Speciosa's grand-daughters who is a Listed bumper winner and has also won over 1m6f on the Flat. The late-maturing 5-year-old is entered in Wednesday's Listed Further Flight S. and though she will face only four rivals, one of them is Alan King's dual Group 1 winner Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}).

Juveniles On The March

Trainer Michael O'Callaghan already has Royal Ascot ambitions for his first 2-year-old winner of the season, Crispy Cat (GB), who became the first runner from the second crop of Ardad (Ire). The Overbury Stud sire was himself a winner at the Royal meeting and provided last year's G2 Norfolk S. (and subsequent dual Group 1 winner) Perfect Power (Ire).

Crispy Cat was the subject of one of the feelgood stories of last year's yearling sales, having been bought for 7,500gns by policeman Leon Carrick and nurse Michelle Gibbons while they were lying in bed watching the the foal sales online during the pandemic. The couple brought him back to Newmarket 10 months later when Ardad's first runners had made a decent impression and the colt was resold for £105,000 to Amo Racing. Proceeds from the sale have been used to fund midwifery training for Gibbons.

The question which will loom large through the next few months is which of the freshman sires will follow Ardad's example with some sharp first-crop winners. Several Coolmore sires are already in the hunt, with Sioux Nation having been represented by the winner of the first juvenile contest of the Irish turf season in Ocean Quest (Ire), one of his three runners to date. 

On Sunday at Le Lion d'Angers, Saxon Warrior (Jpn) followed suit with his first runner and winner, the smartly bred Ser Sed (Ire), who is out of a Frankel (GB) half-sister to Lope De Vega (Ire).

US Navy Flag was unlucky not to join his stud-mates in having a winner on the board when the Clive Cox-trained Kaasib (Ire) found trouble in running at Windsor on Monday but kept on gamely to take second. That same afternoon, Redcar's juvenile race went the way of Star Of Lady M (GB), from the first crop of Whitsbury Manor Stud resident Havana Grey (GB) and trained by David O'Meara.

Lemaire Takes Pride To Kentucky

“If I could choose one race, I would choose, of course, the Kentucky Derby because it's such an iconic race and the atmosphere is incredible, and the race itself with 20 runners is very unusual in America,” Christophe Lemaire told the website Japan Forward in April 2021.
Twelve months later, and the French-born multiple champion jockey in Japan appears to be on the cusp of being granted this wish.  Lemaire has been given the nod to partner the G2 UAE Derby winner Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach The Crown {Jpn}) in the 'Run for the Roses' on May 7, replacing Australian hoop Damian Lane, who was in the saddle for the colt's win at Meydan.
Lemaire did not go empty-handed on Dubai World Cup night, however, as he partnered Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) to victory in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup, having a month earlier ridden four winners on the Saudi Cup card.
With Lemaire having already won Classics in France, Britain and Japan, not to mention landing Australia's  Melbourne Cup with Dunaden (Fr), the logical next challenge for the five-time Japanese champion is to conquer America.

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