Tag: Emma Berry

The Weekly Wrap: Blue Is The Colour

A sea of blue dominated winner’s enclosures in Britain and France this week, largely owing to the successful season currently being enjoyed by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation and Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell team. The brothers occupy the top two slots in the owners’ table in Britain, and Godolphin is also currently the leading owner in France.

While Sheikh Mohammed has a significant number of horses in Chantilly with Andre Fabre, who oversaw the successful return of France’s champion 2-year-old of last year, Earthlight (Ire) (Shamardal), in the Listed Prix Kistena, it was the marauding team of visitors from Charlie Appleby’s stable which really took Deauville by storm on Sunday. At the top of the list was Pinatubo (Shamardal), making a return to winning ways in the G1 Prix Jean Prat. But, let’s face it, if a third-place finish in the 2000 Guineas and a second in the St James’s Palace S. are the only blots on an otherwise spotless copybook, he was hardly a horse coming back from the doldrums. Nonetheless, it is always satisfying to see the champion 2-year-old add to his tally at three and beyond, and it was pleasing to see the hugely likeable Pinatubo triumph in the same race used as a ‘recovery mission’ for the previous season’s champion juvenile Too Darn Hot (GB).

The two colts are sons, respectively, of the two stallions who have contributed enormously to Godolphin’s resurgence in recent years: Shamardal and Dubawi. The loss of the former in April will be rued for years to come, as just a quick glance at Sunday’s Deauville card shows. Along with Earthlight and Pinatubo, Shamardal is also the sire of the G3 Prix de Ris-Orangis winner Royal Crusade (GB), and is the damsire of listed Prix Amandine winner Althiqa (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who together formed the Appleby stakes treble along with Pinatubo. He was also the grandsire of the third horse home in the Jean Prat, the Marco Botti-trained Malotru (GB) (Casamento {Ire}), while in Germany, his 4-year-old daughter Half Light (Ire) struck in the G3 Sparkasse-Holstein Cup for Henri-Alex Pantall, who won last season’s Poule d’Essai des Pouliches with another Shamardal filly, Castle Lady (Ire).

Dubawi is no slacker himself and in the week following the triumph of his son Ghaiyyath (Ire) over Enable (GB) in the Eclipse, his stakes winners kept rolling in. It’s too much to hope that Master Of The Seas (Ire) could be another Pinatubo for Appleby so soon, but his G2 bet365 Superlative S. win after a tetchy start was pretty convincing and means he is now unbeaten in two races. Dubawi cannot take all the credit, however, as Master Of The Seas is out of Firth Of Lorne (Ire) (Danehill), a smart performer herself and notably runner up to Kingman’s dam Zenda (GB) (Zamindar) in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. She is also now the dam of five black-type performers among her seven winners.

Al Suhail (GB)—more of whom below—was another stakes winner for Appleby and Dubawi on the first day of racing on the July Course this season, while Too Darn Hot’s full-brother Darain (GB) made an impressive start to his racing career, winning a Newbury novice race by almost five lengths.

The decent start made by Dubawi’s first-crop son New Bay (GB) was noted in last week’s column but it is worth reiterating this following two more good winners—Jumby (GB) and Vafortino (Ire)—in Britain and Ireland on Saturday. From just ten runners to date, New Bay now has six winners.

It’s a strike-rate to crow about, as is the fact the last year’s champion freshman Night Of Thunder (Ire), also by Dubawi, has now sired eight black-type winners this season, including Thursday’s G2 Dante S. winner Thunderous (Ire), a welcome big-race success for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing.

Oxted Provides First For Many
Away from these powerhouse operations and stallions, the result of the G1 Darley July Cup gave a lift to those operating on a smaller scale. Owned in partnership by his breeders Stephen Piper, Tony Hirschfield and David Fish,

Oxted (GB) not only provided a first Group 1 winner for his fellow July Cup-winning father Mayson (GB) but also for his trainer Roger Teal and young jockey Cieren Fallon.

He was the first foal of his dam Charlotte Rosina (GB), a daughter of July Cup runner-up Choisir (Aus), who was also trained by Teal for the same syndicate under the Homecroft Wealth Racing banner. His full-brother Chipstead (GB)—named after the Surrey village which is home to his birthplace of Hirschfield’s Cheval Court Stud, not far from the village of Oxted—is now also in training in the stable. To complete the July Cup omens, Oxted inhabits the same box as the winner of the race in 1993, Hamas (Ire) (Danzig), who was trained by Peter Walwyn at Windsor House Stables in Lambourn where Teal took up residency at the start of this year.

The move has certainly done the trainer no harm, and his biggest win to date followed the success of Gussy Mac (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the Listed Dragon S. the previous weekend.

Star Appeal
Before Anapurna (GB) (Frankel {GB}) came along, Shirocco Star (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) had come closest to being a homebred Oaks winner for Meon Valley Stud when she was beaten just a neck by Was (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in 2012, finishing half a length in front of third-placed The Fugue (GB) (Dansili {GB}). She has been quick to consolidate her position in the Meon Valley broodmare band, too.

Her first foal is the 92-rated dual winner Starcaster (GB) ((Dansili {GB}), who is now in training with Anthony Freedman in Australia. His year-younger brother Telecaster (GB) (New Approach {GB}) won last year’s G2 Dante S. and recently bounced back to form with a wide-margin win in the G3 La Coupe at Longchamp. In the last week, 3-year-old Al Suhail (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), a 1.1 million gns yearling who was group-placed last season, became the mare’s second black-type winner when landing the listed Sir Henry Cecil S. at Newmarket by six lengths.

All three of these sons could yet garner more stakes success and, while Shirocco Star has no current 2-year-old or yearling to represent her, she produced her first daughter, by Frankel, on Feb. 14.

Telecaster and Al Suhail are not the only male graduates to be flying the flag for the Hampshire nursery this year as Meon Valley Stud also bred the exciting staying prospect Dashing Willoughby (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), whose two runs in 2020 have resulted in victory in the listed Buckhounds S. and G3 Henry II S. to add to his win in the G2 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot last year.

While Shirocco Star is a fifth-generation descendant of Reprocolor (GB) (Jimmy Reppin {GB}), the most celebrated of the Meon Valley foundation mares, Dashing Willoughby’s dam Miss Dashwood (GB) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) is the same number of generations removed from Reprocolor’s contemporary One In A Million (GB) (Rarity {GB}).

The reassuring longevity and success of a well-managed and relatively small British breeding operation continues.

Make Busy
Last week’s wrap touched on the start made by Ballylinch Stud’s Make Believe (GB) through his first-crop Classic winner Mishriff (GB) and it would be remiss not to acknowledge the continuing achievements of the filly who was a ‘breakthrough’ runner for the stallion. The Mark Johnston-trained Rose Of Kildare (Ire), bred by Wansdyke Farms Ltd at Oghill House Stud, was Make Believe’s first winner on May 20 last year. That was her third start; she won again nine days later and clinched another three races, including a pair of Group 3s, before her juvenile season was out. She headed for her winter break after running 12 times between Apr. 30 and Oct. 11 for five wins and three places.

Since racing resumed in June, Rose Of Kildare has run four times, finishing third in the G2 German 1000 Guineas and then third in the G3 Princess Elizabeth S. on ‘Derby day’. Just five days later she was back out to claim her first win of the year in the rescheduled G3 Tattersalls Musidora S.

The tough filly was partly responsible for a memorable day for Johnston and jockey Franny Norton, who also combined to win the G2 Dante S. with Thunderous (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}).

Norton, who turns 50 this year and is arguably riding better then ever, joked in a recent interview that if his children are naughty he threatens them by saying he’s going to send them to Mark Johnston. Certainly, the horses in his stable tend to work hard and race often, and Rose Of Kildare is not the only one who has shown that she thrives on a busy campaign.

Make Believe’s sire Makfi (GB) started his career at Tweenhills Farm & Stud and completed two terms at the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval before being exported to stand at the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association’s Shizunai Stallion Station in 2017. He also appeared as grandsire of another stakes winner this week: The Queen’s G2 Tattersalls July S. winner Tactical (GB) (Toronado {Ire}) is out of his listed-placed daughter Make Fast (GB).

Hollie Go Brightly
Ben Curtis may be romping away with the British jockeys’ championship and is the only rider with more than 100 wins to his name at this stage, but heading the chasing pack is Hollie Doyle, whose season and profile goes from strength to strength.

After landing her first Royal Ascot victory and becoming only the third woman to ride a winner in the meeting’s history, Doyle secured her first group win on Anthony Oppenheimer’s Dame Malliot (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) in the G2 Princess Of Wales’s S. at Newmarket last Thursday. The 4-year-old filly is a credit to her trainer Ed Vaughan, who had her in fine shape for her resumption after 301 days away from the racecourse. She also continued a fine season for Oppenheimer’s Hascombe & Valiant Studs, which has also been represented by G2 Ribblesdale S. winner and Oaks third Frankly Darling (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and has last year’s Irish Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner Starcatcher (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) waiting in the wings for her seasonal comeback.

Doyle’s Royal Ascot winner came aboard Scarlet Dragon (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}) for Alan King, who was busy restocking the Flat section of his yard at last week’s Tattersalls Guineas Sale, where he bought four juveniles, including the 140,000gns top lot. From five runners at Royal Ascot, King saddled three winners and a second. That runner-up, Tritonic (GB) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), who was bought at last year’s Guineas Sale, will bid to improve on that good run in Thursday’s listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Glasgow S. at Hamilton with Doyle booked to ride.

The post The Weekly Wrap: Blue Is The Colour appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Weekly Wrap: Love Abounds

Before we go any further, let’s just make one thing clear: for all the excitement of Saturday and the fact that the Oaks and the Derby were even able to take place this year, let’s not lose our heads and start to think that they should in future take place on the same day in July. They should not. This is an extraordinary year for one big reason beyond our control and it should remain just that.

Right, where were we? Ah, Epsom.

I’ll go to my grave failing to understand why all the world doesn’t love horseracing. For a so-called ‘magnificent triviality’ it doesn’t half get the blood pumping, the emotions soaring and the brain churning before and beyond the great races. And we saw two great races on the Epsom Downs on Saturday, one with a result as thrilling as it was expected and the other as thrilling as it was unexpected.

Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) really did look like she could spend the season conquering all as she swept down the Epsom helter-skelter in a new race record of 2.34:06, narrowly beating the record of Enable three years earlier. Love sets the standard for what looks an exciting crop of 3-year-old fillies this year.

It took Serpentine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) roughly a third of a second more to cover the same course and once the shock subsided from his audacious front-running victory it was hard not to view this as anything other than an excellent result. Most of all, of course, for his 30-year-old jockey Emmet McNamara, who, before Saturday had won two group races, both for his boss Aidan O’Brien, and has now added his name to the roll of honour on which all Flat jockeys long to be included.

It could of course be argued that without the delay to the Classic season, Serpentine would not even have run in the Derby. He had won a Curragh maiden just seven days earlier on his third racecourse appearance, three hours before his stable-mate Santiago (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) landed the Irish Derby. His breeding, however, gives him every right to have been considered a potential Derby winner, with his dam Remember When (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and her sibling Dylan Thomas (Ire) (Danehill) both having knocked on the door at Epsom.

It’s a topsy-turvy year, and ordinarily we would expect to see the Derby winner next in the Irish Derby or, even better for those of a more commercial mindset, the Eclipse, lest he be filed instantly under the ‘future National Hunt sire’ label. Both of those options are impossible this year but wouldn’t it be something to see Love and Serpentine take on each other, as well as Enable (GB) and possibly Ghaiyyath (Ire), in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. on July 25? What a shot in the arm that would be for a great race which has somehow, inexplicably, lost its lustre of late.

Together Alone
An initial thought as Serpentine flashed by the famous winning post more than five lengths ahead of the chasing pack was ‘what more can be said about those over-achievers Aidan O’Brien and Galileo?’ Appropriately, it was Galileo himself who first caused O’Brien’s name to be etched on the list alongside a Derby winner. From the 19 horses to have won the race since then, another seven have been trained by him, while Galileo has now featured as the sire of five Derby winners (and grandsire of one). Together and alone, they are record-breakers in myriad ways and we are fortunate to be alive to witness what will forever be regarded as a significant chapter in the history of racing and breeding.

A new chapter was started the following day at Chantilly when the former Aidan O’Brien trainee Fancy Blue (Ire) became the first Classic winner for her new trainer and Aidan’s son Donnacha. Last season the filly had been one of the winners which had helped the 21-year-old secure his second champion jockey title in Ireland before hanging up his boots to join his father and his elder brother Joseph in the training ranks.

There was an echo of another Derby winner in Fancy Blue, who is out of a full-sister to the late and often overlooked High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), who gave Aidan O’Brien his second Derby victory the year after Galileo. There has been more focus though on the filly’s sire, Deep Impact (Jpn), who can very much be viewed as the Galileo of Japan and who died almost a year ago at only 17. His legacy will also be long-lasting and it is starting to creep into Europe via his Classic-winning stallion sons Saxon Warrior (Jpn)—out of a Group 1-winning daughter of Galileo—and Study Of Man (Fr), a grandson of Miesque.

In fact it was one of Study Of Man’s relations, the fellow Niarchos-bred Alpine Star (Ire), who was so narrowly beaten by Fancy Blue on Sunday in the Prix de Diane after emphatically winning the G1 Coronation S. at Ascot only just over a fortnight earlier. Her sire Sea The Moon (Ger) stands alongside Study Of Man at Lanwades and both should be given serious consideration by breeders with Classic aspirations but without pockets deep enough for Galileo or Dubawi (Ire).

Millennium Marker
While we will look back and view these early decades of the 21st century as the time of Galileo, the horse named to usher in a new era, Dubai Millennium, is remembered through a now flourishing male line which could so easily have withered and died.

Dubawi was of course a member of the first and only crop of the ill-fated Dubai Millennium. The winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas, Dubawi was then represented in his first crop by Makfi (GB), who won the 2000 Guineas. Make Believe (GB), from Makfi’s first crop, reinforced the line and in turn won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. He now has a first-crop Classic winner of his own in the Prix du Jockey Club hero Mishriff (GB).

Thirty years earlier, Mishriff’s owner-breeder Prince A A Faisal, had enjoyed Classic success at Chantilly with the Prix de Diane winner Rafha (GB) (Kris {GB}), who is the colt’s third dam. His claims to a future stallion career are further enhanced by two of Rafha’s sons, the successful sires Kodiac (GB) (Danehill) and Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Desert).

Make Believe, a three-parts-brother to dual Grade I winner Dubawi Heights (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), raced in Prince Faisal’s colours but had been bought by him as a foal for 180,000gns from his breeder Simon Hope of Aston Mullins Stud. The prince had also purchased Make Believe’s contemporary, rising freshman sire Belardo (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), as a yearling at Arqana for €100,000 and the pair ended their careers with two Group 1 victories apiece.

Belardo also did his sire a huge favour by becoming his first Group 1 winner in the Dewhurst S., and, though bred by Ballylinch Stud where Lope De Vega stands, he is now at Kildangan Stud after Godolphin bought into him during his racing career.

Make Believe instead stands at Ballylinch, which is now part of a powerful partnership behind the young stallion.

“Prince Faisal kept a third of Make Believe and on occasion in the first few years we have sent half the broodmare band to him,’ says Ted Voute, who manages the prince’s bloodstock at Eydon Hall Farm, the former base of Gerald Leigh’s successful breeding operation.

“He has ten mares and he tends to keep the average age of the broodmare band quite low. Gerald Leigh was the same way, he often sold mares that were 10 or 12.”

Mishriff’s dam, the winning 10-year-old Raven’s Pass mare Contradict (GB), has had a breeding career of highs and lows. Her first three foals are all black-type earners and in the following three seasons she has failed to produce any offspring.

Voute says, “Contradict is now in foal to Frankel (GB) and we have had a bit of bad luck with her because she would get in foal and then reabsorb before 42 days. We are past that stage now this year so we are hopeful but she will hold on to this one.”

Prince Faisal’s good week may not yet be over as he has TDN Rising Star Seventh Kingdom (GB) (Frankel {GB}), another great grandson of Rafha, entered for Saturday’s G2 Superlative S.

“We might be shooting a bit high with him, but you could have said that we were doing that on Sunday also,” Voute adds of the 2-year-old colt. “He’s not a horse that puts in scintillating work so when he won well first time out we were slightly caught off guard.”

While Mishriff and Seventh Kingdom are both homebreds, their breeder has not been averse to racing other people’s stock, as illustrated by Belardo and Make Believe, and he has enjoyed notable success with his select purchases.

Voute explains, “We don’t really have a [buying] strategy. We’d bought [G2 Prix Greffulhe winner] Ocovango (GB) a few years before that and we got lucky with him. Every now and then when the mood takes him, Prince Faisal will say ‘if you’re in Deauville go and have a look at this one’. He’s always going through the catalogues and the photos online and he usually has his own shortlist. In the case of Belardo he had asked me to go to see a Lawman (Fr) and I didn’t like that colt but I told him I had seen a nice Lope De Vega colt, so that’s how we bought him. At the foal sales when he bought Make Believe we’d made a shortlist of ten with Hugo Merry, because when I am selling I don’t like to sell and buy at the same time. The prince came up from London and we showed him the ten and we were beaten on the first two, a Teofilo (Ire) and a New Approach (Ire), both bought by John Ferguson. So then we took all the Darley horses off the list and the only one left was the Makfi and, lo and behold, that was Make Believe. We took him back to Eydon—all the horses are raised there, and Belardo came back there after the yearling sale. Mishriff of course was also there. There’s a very prolific colts’ paddock called Culworth Road East, in which Gerald Leigh had Barathea (Ire) and Markofdistinction (GB), and we’ve kept the tradition of raising our colts in this massive 30-acre field.”

As for Mishriff’s future stud prospects, Voute adds, “It’s a real stallions’ family now. When the prince sold Invincible Spirit and Kodiac he kept very few shares in both of them and I think perhaps he regretted that, so he kept a good bit of Make Believe and he also kept breeding rights in Belardo. I imagine he will now keep a good part of Mishriff when the time comes for him to go to stud and that will help when he hands over to his sons as they will have an operation that can cover its own costs.”

For Ballylinch Stud, the good news did not end with Mishriff this weekend as Lope De Vega, who is enjoying another typically fruitful season, was represented by the G2 Lancashire Oaks winner Manuela De Vega (Ire). Furthermore, the stud’s freshman stallion and fellow French Classic winner New Bay (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is starting to make his presence felt. Since June 12, he has been represented by four winners and, in a manner reminiscent of last year’s freshman champion and fellow son of Dubawi, Night Of Thunder (Ire), it is his strike-rate at this stage which is the remarkable factor as those winners have come from just seven runners.

In turn, Night Of Thunder has continued his ascent and currently heads the second-crop sires’ list with seven black-type winners including a first Classic winner of his own, the G2 Oaks d’Italia winner Auyantepui (GB). The unbeaten filly was bred by Massimo Parri, head of the Italian TBA and owner of Allevamento Le Gi in Tuscany. Trained until now by Nicolo Simondi, Auyantepui’s recent 50% purchase by Australian-based OTI Racing means that she will transfer to the Chantilly stable of first-season Italian trainer Mario Baratti, a former assistant to Marco Botti and Pascal Bary.

Adaay On The Hunt
Goken (Fr) has been the leader of the European first-season sires’ competition since flagfall, and his first winner, Livachope (Fr), duly became his first group winner last week when extending her unbeaten record to three in the G3 Prix du Bois, leading home her paternal half-sister Axdavali (Fr).

With ten individual winners on the board, the son of Kendargent (Fr) is only one ahead of Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Adaay (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who is the sire of Twaasol (GB), winner of the Woodcote S. at Epsom, and Doctor Strange, who took third in Sunday’s G3 Premio Primi Passi.

Kodiac and his half-brother Invincible Spirit account for five of the top 11 stallions in the table, including Prince Of Lir (Ire) and Kodi Bear (Ire) by the former, and Invincible Spirit’s sons Territories (Ire) and Shalaa (Ire).

 

 

 

 

The post The Weekly Wrap: Love Abounds appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Weekly Wrap: By Royal Acclaim

Back in April, when major sporting events across the world were being cancelled left, right and centre, the management team at the Queen’s racecourse took the decision that, if racing had resumed in time, Royal Ascot would go ahead behind closed doors. The announcement was met with incredulity in some quarters, particularly by those keen to blame the spread of coronavirus on the Cheltenham Festival, but thank goodness Ascot stuck to its resolve to go ahead, even in extraordinary circumstances.

Of course the meeting lost some of its lustre, just as the Classics have done so far, with none of the pomp and circumstance which usually accompanies the racing, but the racing is, after all, what Ascot is really about. The extended fixture, with its extra six races, provided plenty of stories that were heartwarming enough to have us believing that all is right with the world again. Well, almost.

A Burst of Applause
For no better reason than the fact that the horse who has been my beloved daily companion for the last 14 years is a son of Royal Applause (GB) I’ve always had a soft spot for the 1997 G1 Haydock Sprint Cup winner. At 27, Royal Applause is living in retirement at the Royal Studs, an appropriate venue for a sire who played a significant role in the paternal line of seven of the 36 winners at Royal Ascot.

By the final day the old boy was represented in his own right, when his 7-year-old son Chiefofchiefs (GB) gave trainer Charlie Fellowes his second winner of the meeting in the Silver Wokingham. Ahead of that, however, the stallion most responsible for the blossoming of this line in recent years, Dark Angel (Ire), had provided one of the most explosive winners of the week in the sprint star Battaash (Ire), as well as Art Power (Ire) and Mountain Angel (Ire). The last-naned and Battaash are both 6-year-olds and represent one of Dark Angel’s great strengths as a stallion in the apparent durability of his stock.

Dark Angel’s sire Acclamation (GB) of course deserves plenty of credit. Runner-up to Choisir (Aus) in the G2 King’s Stand S. of 2003, the 21-year-old’s top-rated performer is Equiano (Fr), the dual winner of that same race after its upgrading to Group 1 status. Equiano in turn is the sire of Equilateral (GB), who chased home Battaash in the King’s Stand this year, while another of Acclamation’s sons, Harbour Watch (Ire), made a posthumous contribution through the thrilling G2 King Edward VII S. victory of Pyledriver (GB), who may now be a rare Derby runner for this sireline.

There are now at least nine sons of Dark Angel at stud in Europe, and two of those also provided winners at Ascot. The G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde (Ire) lives in the stable once occupied by his sire Lethal Force (Ire) at Clive Cox’s Lambourn yard. He brought further fitting success for that stable on Friday when becoming the first Group 1 winner for his sire, who moved from Cheveley Park Stud to Haras de Grandcamp for the 2020 covering season.

Furthermore, Mickley Stud’s Heeraat (Ire) got the ball rolling for a hugely successful week for his former owner Sheikh Hamdan when his son Motakhayyel (GB) won the opening race of the meeting in the Shadwell blue and white.

Dark Angel has two sons with first-crop runners this season: Tara Stud’s Estidhkaar (Ire), who has already sired three winners, and Markaz (Ire), the full-brother to the brilliant mare Mecca’s Angel (Ire) who is at Derrinstown and got off the mark with his first winner on Sunday.

Success For O’Callaghan Clan
Bred by Gay and Annette O’Callaghan’s Yeomanstown Stud, Dark Angel returned there for his stud career but this was not the only O’Callaghan-owned stud to have plenty to celebrate during Royal Ascot. Gay’s brother Tony owns Tally-Ho Stud with his wife Anne and sons Roger and Henry, and the farm’s flagship stallion Kodiac (GB) enjoyed a terrific finale to Ascot with three group winners on Saturday.

The Tally-Ho Stud-bred Campanelle (Ire) started the treble with her victory in the G2 Queen Mary S. for Wesley Ward, who trains the Tattersalls October Book 1 graduate for Barbara Banke.

A juvenile Group 2 double was completed by the outsider Nando Parrado (GB), who was bred by Anita Wigan and again showcased the talents of Clive Cox and Adam Kirby in winning the G2 Coventry S. At 150/1, the colt became the longest-priced winner in the history of the Royal Meeting and if his victory surprised many, his trainer wasn’t one of them.

“Nando Parrado is a proper horse and we loved him from the start,” Cox said. “This was always the plan, it was just a sideways step on his first run. He came home and thrived from there, and then when the rain came earlier in the week, I knew he would be better on good or slower ground than quicker ground.”

Nando Parrado runs in the colours of Marie McCartan, who, with husband Paul, owns Ballyphilip Stud. The couple had already been represented as winning breeders at Royal Ascot through Battaash, and they have enjoyed a particularly fruitful association with Cox over the years. The trainer bought subsequent dual Group 1 winner Xtension (Ire) (Xaar {GB}) from Ballyphilip as a yearling for €15,000 in 2008 and, seven years later, he returned to the same source to spend £44,000 on a Dark Angel colt who would become known as Harry Angel (Ire) and go on to win the G1 July Cup and G1 Haydock Sprint Cup.

Kodiac’s memorable day was completed by Hello Youmzain’s victory in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S., giving young jockey Kevin Stott both his first Group 1 win and his first victory at Royal Ascot. Like London buses, Stott and trainer Kevin Ryan struck again in the very next race when Hey Jonesy (Ire) (Excelebration {Ire}) stuck his nose out to win the Wokingham. The 4-year-old Hello Youmzain, who races for the partnership of France’s Haras d’Etreham and New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud, quite clearly already has a dual-hemisphere stallion career mapped out for him.

Roger O’Callaghan, who will offer three Kodiac 2-year-olds among an eight-strong Tally-Ho Stud draft for this week’s Tattersalls Ascot and Craven Breeze-up Sale, said of Saturday’s results, “It was mighty, unreal. It was beyond our expectations really, and I am also delighted for Joe Foley and for Yeomanstown, it was a great week for the Irish stallion industry.”

Fine And Dandy
As noted by O’Callaghan above, the joy for Ireland’s independently owned studs didn’t end with the O’Callaghan family. Joe Foley enjoyed a juvenile group-race double on Friday for his Ballyhane Stud stallions through The Lir Jet (Ire) and Dandalla (Ire), representing the first-season sire Prince Of Lir (Ire)—himself a former winner of the G2 Norfolk S.—and the established Dandy Man (Ire).

The Lir Jet, who was bought by Qatar Bloodstock after his debut win at Yarmouth, might be considered to be the one who got away for the Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-up Sale, which makes a belated appearance this week.

Foley bought the colt as a foal from his breeder Donal Boylan for €9,500 and then sold him for £8,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale to breeze-up pinhooker Robson Aguiar. With the sales season delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Aguiar took the sensible decision to do a deal with Nick Bell which enabled The Lir Jet to make the most of his precocity by racing from the Newmarket stable of Bell’s father Michael. Now, while many of his fellow sales entries are breezing on the Rowley Mile on Monday ahead of Thursday’s sale, The Lir Jet is already a Group 2 winner who has given an important boost to his young sire.

“The warm, fuzzy feeling hasn’t worn off yet,” Foley said on Sunday. “The Lir Jet had no lookers at the yearling sale except for Robson. I’ve bought two good breezers from Robson for Clipper Logistics in recent years, so I admire and respect him. I strongly encouraged him to buy the colt last year at Doncaster and Robson, to his credit, told me in February this year that he was a stakes horse at least. Then he kept improving his prediction as the months passed and he told me six weeks ago that he was a group horse for sure and a very good horse. Robson is obviously a very switched-on fella and I’m delighted for him that he has proven to be correct.”

He continued, “When Sheikh Fahad’s team were thinking of buying him they contacted me and asked what I thought of him and I gave them some encouragement to go ahead a buy him. The nice irony is that they also bought Extortionist from Dandy Man’s first crop and he won the Windsor Castle and was a fantastic fillip in Dandy Man’s first season, and I’m really pleased for Sheikh Fahad, David Redvers and Oisin Murphy that they have now had this success with The Lir Jet.”

Foley added,” It’s also fantastic for his breeder Donal Boylan. I’ve never met him as he’s based in Hong Kong but he’s a really nice man and keeps his mares with Brian O’Neill at Rockton Stud. [The Lir Jet’s dam] Paper Dreams was the first mare he ever sent to me.”

Credit Due To Crowley And King
While there were many performances of merit throughout the meeting at which Frankie Dettori and John Gosden topped the leading jockey and trainer lists, two men who deserve special mention both first made their names in the National Hunt division but are very much at home at Flat racing’s top table.

We have an interview with Jim Crowley running later in the week in TDN but his six winners for his boss Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum must be noted here as they put him on level-pegging with the more flamboyant Dettori. It would actually be hard to think of a more unassuming member of the weighing-room than Crowley, who rode over jumps before turning to the Flat more than 10 years ago. In 2016 he was crowned champion jockey, a month before he was signed up as number one rider to Sheikh Hamdan. In fact, three of the jockey’s Royal Ascot winners were provided by two of his former jumps weighing-room colleagues, Roger Varian and Owen Burrows, who celebrated his first win at the meeting with Shadwell’s Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).

Alan King would be more readily identified as a National Hunt trainer but he has long had notable success with his Flat runners and his team of five sent up the M4 from his Barbury Castle base to Ascot included three winners and a runner-up. King won the closing race on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday with the dual-purpose performers Coeur De Lion (GB) (Pour Moi {Ire}), Scarlet Dragon (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}) and Who Dares Wins (Ire) (Jeremy). The last two named, both owned by Henry Ponsonby Racing, provided first victories at the meeting for Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand, two of the rising stars of the weighing-room.

For the second time in the week, the late and much missed Kevin Mercer was brought to mind when the admirable Scarlet Dragon won his eighth race. Like Pyledriver, he was bred at the Mercer family’s Usk Valley Stud, where Pyledriver’s dam La Pyle previously boarded for Mercer’s friends and fellow breeders Roger Devlin and Guy and Hugh Leach. The trio has enjoyed extraordinary success with their first homebred, whose mating was advised by Mercer, and with Pyledriver heading towards Epsom for the Derby the fun may have only just begun.

Stradivarius A National Treasure
We started this column with speed and we’ll end with the star stayer, Bjorn Nielsen’s mighty Stradivarius (Ire), who is more than deserving of having the last word dedicated to him.

His fourth consecutive Royal Ascot triumph was the highlight of a good week for his sire Sea The Stars (Ire), who was also represented by Hukum (GB) and the impressive G2 Hardwicke S. winner Fanny Logan (GB) as well as featuring as grandsire of Alpine Star (Ire), who became the first Group 1 winner for her sire Sea The Moon (Ger) in the Coronation S.

With three Gold Cups among his 15 victories to date, Stradivarius is guaranteed his place in racing’s history books and he also, eventually, deserves a place at a good Flat stud. Where better for him to stand when his time comes to retire than at the National Stud, where many visitors would also be able to glimpse one of the most popular racehorses of the modern era?

The post The Weekly Wrap: By Royal Acclaim appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Weekly Wrap: Peace, Love and Understanding

First Love, now Peaceful. In another alarming week in world events, we could all use a little of both, but they are of course the two latest Classic winners for their peerless sire Galileo (Ire).

When winning the Moyglare Stud S. last September, Love (Ire), now also the 1000 Guineas winner, sparked a Group 1 double on Irish Champions Weekend which was completed by the Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song (Ire). By November, Galileo had drawn level with Danehill’s record on 84 individual Group 1 winners thanks to the remarkable Magic Wand (Ire), who won the G1 Mackinnon S. in Australia on her 11th start of a 12-race year across six different countries.

The 5-year-old mare, who returned in triumphant fashion on Saturday at the Curragh to win the G2 Lanwades Stud S., is perhaps the perfect embodiment of the most important trait Galileo appears to impart to many of his offspring: hardiness. Plenty of them, of course, are not short on talent either, and another went his way with just one runner apiece in the fields for the 1000 Guineas and Irish 1000 Guineas and the most recent Classic was added to Galileo’s phenomenal tally after Peaceful (Ire) led home an O’Brien family party at the Curragh on Saturday.

Trained, like a significant number of Galileo’s major winners, by Aidan O’Brien, she was at the forefront of a quartet completed by her stable-mate So Wonderful (War Front) and Fancy Blue (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and New York Girl (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) representing the stables of the master trainer’s sons Donnacha and Joseph. It would be no surprise to see first-season trainer Donnacha snare an early Classic victory of his own courtesy of Fancy Blue, on whom he won a Naas maiden last September in his final season as a jockey and who looks tailor-made for the Oaks, both on her Guineas performance and pedigree.

Lyons In Roaring Form
The weekend delivered an extra shot in the arm with the victory of Siskin in the Irish 2000 Guineas. The unbeaten Juddmonte colt of course also represents one of the most powerful owner-breeder operations in the world, but he has been entrusted to Ger Lyons, who, over three decades has steadily built his stable into a serious force to be reckoned with. That he is now patronised by some of the world’s leading owners is deserved rewrad for effort and a first Classic success for Lyons and his retained jockey Colin Keane was a widely popular result.

He is a trainer who doesn’t pander to anyone and is refreshingly direct in this age of spin by social media. But it was easy to detect the strong emotion prompted by Siskin’s behind-closed-doors Guineas win even as Lyons joked that it suited him just fine as he prefers his own company anyway. He may have stood alone, but the racing world was watching and smiling along with him.

In a different year, with more time between major events and fewer restrictions on travel, we maybe would have seen Siskin take on Pinatubo (Ire), Kameko and Victor Ludorum (Ire) in the St James’s Palace S. As it is there will be no raiding party from Glenburnie at Royal Ascot this year.

“That’s out of everybody’s control,” Lyons told TDN on Monday. “I know Aidan [O’Brien] is partaking but he can fly in and fly out, but apart from the flying in and out it would be the wrong thing to run Siskin back again. That doesn’t work for me. I’m not saying it’s wrong for Aidan, I’m just saying it doesn’t work for me.”

He continued, “It’s just the timing and it’s unfortunate but it’s the year that were in and we’ll take it. The English Guineas was ruled out because we couldn’t get Colin in to ride, simple as, so we committed to the Curragh Guineas, and that was our main aim. We said if we’re doing that and he’s good enough, then the Sussex Stakes will be the next race. He’s proven himself well good enough, so as we stand it’s the Sussex Stakes unless we are told differently. That’s his programme.”

The unbeaten Siskin appears to have taken his first outing of the season well, according to his trainer, who said, “He’s grand, he lost his weight but he’s licked his pot. If he ever stops eating I’ll be very worried. He rode out this morning and did his dressage, had a shower and had his roll as usual. Then he had a couple of hours picking grass and he’s the same old Siskin, so I’d say the weight will be back on him in the next day or so.”

While he was the most important, Siskin was not the only exciting winner to emerge from Glenburnie in the past week. Lyons has sent out six winners from his 31 runners since the resumption, including exciting juvenile debutante Frenetic (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and the listed winners Heliac (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) and Nickajack Cave (Ire) (Kendargent {Fr}). Juddmonte’s Peace Charter is also a filly to watch with interest following her fifth-place finish in the G3 Leopardstown Fillies Trial S.

“Peace Charter had a bad draw in the Guineas trial at Leopardstown and had no luck in running. That would have been grand if she’d had a better draw but we had a good end of the week for Juddmonte. Our horses in general have run really well since we’ve started back so we’re delighted,” Lyons said.

“Frenetic is a little star. She was back under saddle this morning and did a canter. She was mad keen to get out, that filly, and was ready for a while, and she will hopefully aim for the group race at Naas [the G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies’ Sprint S. on July 4].”

He added of the emerging staying prospect Nickajack Cave, winner of the Saval Beg Levmoss S., “I’m not a globetrotter but he’s a horse that we said at the start of the year if we had an Ebor horse it was him. He’s a long way off [last year’s Ebor winner] Mustajeer (GB) at the moment. He still only a young unexposed 4-year old and that was his first time over the trip. I got so much pleasure watching him because I just love seeing a race run like that. You could see [Colin] there watching and you could see the further he went the stronger the horse was coming under him and you knew turning in that he was going to take off.  And he did and it was lovely to watch.

“He did it well and we have lovely options for him. Ultimately he has that shape about him, he’s the type of horse who could be a Melbourne Cup horse for the next three years. I’m not saying for me but he has that sort of look about him.”

Transatlantic Joy
Following the 2000 Guineas success of Kameko, his sire Kitten’s Joy was represented by another exciting 3-year-old this week in Crossfirehurricane, winner of the G3 Coolmore Ten Sovereigns Gallinule S. for Joseph O’Brien.

The colt boosted a good week for American owners in Ireland as he races in the colours of his co-breeder Scott Heider of Heider Family Stables. In a partnership which started around six years ago, Heider bred the unbeaten Crossfirehurricane with Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm and they now have a serious Irish Derby contender on their hands.

Bernick was also on the winners’ sheet in Ireland last week as the owner of the Dark Angel (Ire) filly Lynn Britt Cabin (Ire). Her victory at Leopardstown on Thursday for Fozzy Stack came a day after the owner’s One Voice (Ire) (Poet’s Voice {Ire}) was just touched off in the listed Salsabil S. at Navan. She holds an entry for a potential quick turnaround in the listed Victor McCalmont Memorial S. on Friday.

Star Quality
Five new TDN Rising Stars were named in Europe in the last week and they include Admiral Nelson (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who made a few headlines even before he started racing.

Bred by Bob and Pauline Scott at their Essex-based Parks Farm Stud, the colt set a new record price for the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale last year when selling to Coolmore through Hillwood Stud for £440,000.

The Scotts bought his dam Shamandar (Fr) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) as a foal and retained her at 3,500gns when offered as a yearling at the Tattersalls December Sale. She was later withdrawn from the Guineas Sale but the tale of pinhooking woe had a happy ending when she won the listed EBF Dick Poole Fillies’ S. in their colours and more than £200,000 in prize-money earned from 11 starts.

Admiral Nelson is the mare’s fifth foal and is entered for both the G2 Norfolk S. and G2 Coventry S. later this week.

Belardo Bowling Along
No fewer than 18 first-crop stallions have now been represented by at least one winner in Europe. Haras de Colleville’s Goken broke early and has maintained his lead with five winners to his credit. He is also the first of the bunch to record a stakes winner. His daughter Livachope (Fr) won Sunday’s listed Prix la Fleche having got her sire off the mark on debut on May 13.

It is the Darley stallion Belardo (Ire), a grandson of the recently deceased Shamardal, who has really caught the eye in the last week, however, bringing his tally up to four with a smart-looking first-time-out winner at Goodwood on Sunday. Trained by Joe Tuite, Lullaby Moon (Ire) streaked away from her rivals, including the 6/4 favourite Stream (GB) (Frankel {GB}), to win by two and a quarter lengths and she holds an entry for Saturday’s G2 Queen Mary S. Belardo could also be represented at Ascot in the G3 Albany S. by another recent winner, the William Haggas-trained Golden Melody (Ire).

With Roaring Lion having died last summer and Hawkbill relocated to Japan, only one son of the celebrated Kitten’s Joy remains at stud in Britain and that is the Lanwades resident and GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Bobby’s Kitten. He too could be represented in the Queen Mary by one of his two winners to date, Kirsten Rausing’s Sands Of Time (GB).

 

 

The post The Weekly Wrap: Peace, Love and Understanding appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights