Emma Berry | Horse Racing Free Tips

Seven Days: Juveniles in the Spotlight

With the leaves on the turn and rugs back on the horses after the hottest summer in many a year, it may feel as though we are coming to the end of the season but by juvenile Group 1 contests in Europe we are really only halfway through.

So far, No Nay Never's sons Little Big Bear (Ire) and Blackbeard (Ire) (No Nay Never), both trained by Aidan O'Brien, have claimed three between them – the Phoenix S., Prix Morny and Middle Park S., while the Joseph O'Brien-trained Al Riffa (Fr) became the first Group 1-winning juvenile colt for Wootton Bassett (GB). Only the two fillies' races have fallen outside the clutches of the O'Brien family, with Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) following her talented big sister Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) to Group 1 glory in the Moyglare Stud S. for Dermot Weld, and Ralph Beckett claiming one for Britain in Saturday's Juddmonte Cheveley Park S., in which Lezoo (GB) became a first top-level winner in the northern hemisphere for Zoustar (Aus).

Through the next month we have the seven Group 1 races for two-year-olds which will perhaps have more of a bearing on next year's Classics. On Saturday, Aidan O'Brien was quick to point to Blackbeard being more about the big sprints next year than the Guineas. However, his stable-mate Little Big Bear, who shares his damsire Bering (GB) with Stradivarius (Ire), has more notable stamina influences on his bottom line, not least his sensational Arc-winning great grand-dam All Along (Fr) (Targowice), which may well help his claims in mile contests and perhaps beyond.

Lezoo owns a properly fast pedigree, while Tahiyra can plainly be considered of enormous Classic potential. Al Riffa is by a sire who won the Marcel Boussac and was perhaps found wanting at the mile but has had no problem producing a champion middle-distance three-year-old in Almanzor (Fr). The fact that Al Riffa is out of a Galileo (Ire) mare clearly bolstered his stamina claims, which are enhanced deeper into his pedigree by his extremely classy third dam My Emma (GB) (Marju {Ire}), winner of the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille and a half-sister to Gold Cup and St Leger winner Classic Cliche.

With regard to next season's Classics, if that isn't wishing our lives away too quickly, the action of the next month will start to drop some proper hints as to which horses we should be dreaming about over the winter. Isa Salman and Abdullah Al Khalifa's homebred G2 Rockfel S. winner Commissioning (GB) (Kingman {GB}) certainly looks like she will be one of them, and the Gosden trainee could yet return to the Rowley Mile a week on Saturday for the G1 Fillies' Mile or head to the Breeders' Cup in a bid to extend her unbeaten run this season before being wrapped up until spring.

Polly Pott (GB) (Muhaarar {GB}) is an intriguing prospect, having progressed from a handicap mark of 68 to win her last four starts, culminating in the G2 May Hill S. at 40/1 for her retiring trainer. More intriguing still is that she will move to the stable of Ben Pauling at the end of the season when Dunlop hands in his licence. Pauling is better known as a National Hunt trainer but, perhaps spurred by the dual-purpose success of the likes of Alan King and Ian Williams, he has now set his sights on training some Flat horses. Having a team which includes Group 2 winner – who may yet be supplemented to give Dunlop one last hurrah in the G1 Fillies' Mile – is not a bad place to start, especially considering the success of late of Polly Pott's family, which includes the Group 1 winners Accidental Agent (GB) and Mohaather (GB).

Lezoo Delivers on Many Fronts

There were lots of smiling faces as Lezoo returned to the winner's enclosure at Newmarket on Saturday. Jamie McCalmont, who with Kelsey Lupo had bought the filly under the Atlas Bloodstock banner for €110,000 at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale, had also signed up Blackbeard as a foal for Coolmore the previous year for 270,000gns at Tattersalls. The agent clearly had at least two reasons to be cheerful, especially on behalf of his clients and Lezoo's owners Marc Chan and Andrew Rosen. For Chan it was the second Group 1-winning two-year-old in consecutive seasons following the Criterium International success of Angel Bleu (Fr), who is also trained by Ralph Beckett.

Roger O'Callaghan was presumably settling in his draft of Orby yearling at Goffs on Saturday but he could have been permitted a little skip of joy through the sales grounds when first Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}) won the G2 Beresford S. then Lezoo claimed her success. Both were graduates of the Tally-Ho Stud team of breezers this season, with Crypto Force, who was bred by Andrew Tinkler, having gone though four sales in his two and a half years.

Team Tweenhills was of course delighted with Lezoo's breakthrough win for her sire Zoustar, who had been greeted with a degree of scepticism by the European market despite his success in Australia.

“He's doing exactly what he did in Australia,” exclaimed David Redvers at Newmarket. “I couldn't dream that he would do it to the same extent, but he had a champion two-year-old filly in his first crop there [Sunlight] and he could well do the same here. They are not early, precocious two-year-olds. You get the odd one but as a rule they are autumn two-year-olds, and what we saw in Australia was dramatic improvement from two to three, so that is obviously what we are all looking forward to.”

And most importantly of all, it was great to see the people responsible for the existence of Lezoo, Andrew and Jane Black of Chasemore Farm, on the winner's rostrum to receive their prize as the filly's breeder.

“It's amazing, and if Noble Style hadn't had colic we could have also had the favourite in the very next Group 1 race,” said Andrew Black, speaking to TDN between the Cheveley Park S. and the Middle Park S.

Noble Style (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who is unbeaten this year in three races including the G2 Gimcrack S., was sold by Chasemore Farm ten days before Lezoo, the pair having featured in Books 1 and 3 of the draft respectively at the Tattersalls October Sale.

While Lezoo is out of the Red Clubs (Ire) mare Roger Sez (Ire), Noble Style also has Red Clubs in his pedigree as the sire of his grand-dam Ceiling Kitty (GB), who died in 2016 after foaling her Chesham Stakes-winning son Arthur Kitt (GB) (Camelot {GB}). Noble Style's dam is the Listed winner Eartha Kitt (GB), a daughter of Pivotal (GB).

“The tragedy is that we sold Roger Sez,” Black continued. “Theoretically we kept two [Red Clubs] fillies but then one of the two died and I wish I hadn't sold her because I've left myself light, so there is a little bit of regret that I wouldn't normally have.”

He continued, “I believe in Red Clubs and I believe in his pedigree, but I always felt that the mares that I have by him are a little bit neat. So they are interesting genetically, but I want to layer on top of that to get my broodmares. So the Shamardal daughter of Illaunglas, or the Pivotal daughter of Ceiling Kitty, those to me were just a bit more interesting because you've taken Red Clubs, who tended to get them a bit neat, and then you've put a bit more size into them. So to my thinking anyway you're getting something along the lines of a perfect receptacle – nicely genetically balanced with but of that kind of Red Clubs intensity.”

Roger Sez has in fact been through the December Sale twice in the last two years, sold by Chasemore to Rabbah Bloodstock, who then sold her on to Melchior Bloodstock last winter for 28,000gns.

Hail the Handicap Kings

Though it's the time of the year for black-type races left, right and centre, there's always plenty of interest to be derived from the heritage handicaps, and the Cambridgeshire didn't disappoint in that regard. The four-year-old winner Majestic (Ire) provided the biggest result for his late sire Conduit (Ire) to date, as well as for his owner-breeders Nick and Liz Hitchins.

Unraced until March of this year, having recovered from a fractured pelvis and then being subjected to a wind operation after his debut in a Kempton bumper, Majestic pulled himself together to win on his handicap debut in mid-August off a mark of 79. Having squeaked into the Cambridgeshire on the joint-lowest mark of 86, his bumble-bee silks could be seen weaving their way through the field to land a second major handicap victory for Mick Channon this season after the Lincoln win of Johan (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}) on his first start for the stable in March.

At the Curragh on Sunday the smartly-bred Waterville (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) landed the spoils in the value-boosted €600,000 'Friends of the Curragh' Irish Cesarewitch. Sent off favourite, the half-brother to Irish Oaks winner Sea Of Class (Ire) and the Italian Group 1 winners Final Score (Ire) and Charity Line (Ire), was hardly a surprise victor but it was the manner of his last-gasp neck win over Echoes In Rain (Fr) (Authorized {Ire}) that had onlookers heaping praise on jockey Wayne Lordan. With just six starts to his name, the three-year-old Waterville looks to have a bright future in Cup races next season.

Rebel With a Cause

William Buick can do no wrong this year and, after winning the Cheveley Park S. for Ralph Beckett, he headed over to Cologne for Charlie Appleby to snare his second Group 1 win of the weekend in the Preis von Europa aboard Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

Following a lacklustre start to the year in Meydan, Godolphin's statuesque four-year-old has really come into his own since returning to Britain, where he won twice as a juvenile. Rebel's Romance is now unbeaten in his four starts since June 25, starting in the Listed Fred Archer Stakes at Newmarket and progressing through the G3 Glorious Stakes and then the Grosser Preis von Berlin, the first of his two consecutive Group 1 wins.

Both stakes races at Cologne on Sunday fell to British trainers, with the Mark and Charlie Johnston-trained juvenile Sirona (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) taking the Listed Winterkonigin-Trial.

The filly is owned by Jayne McGivern, who recently bought Golden Horn (GB) to stand as a dual-purpose sire at Overbury Stud and who also owns some smart National Hunt mares, including the dam of Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}).

McGivern has joked the she is “going over to the dark side” by rekindling her Flat ownership, and Sirona, who is now two from three in the early stages of her career, looked a smart prospect for next year in her four-length triumph.

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Seven Days: Overwhelming

Where to begin? The past week has been so wrought with emotion that by the time Sunday arrived with its 15 group races in England, Ireland and France only the dourest of stayers made it through to Doncaster's Mallard Handicap.

This is a racing publication, of course, but before we reflect on the action on the racecourse, it would be remiss not to mention the heartbreaking human loss which was so intrinsically entwined with the sport.

Grief engulfed two nations. Wednesday brought the indelibly sad image of Henry de Bromhead as one of the pallbearers carrying his son Jack's wicker casket from the Butlerstown's Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary surrounded by mourners of all ages. In solidarity with their friend who lost his life at the age of 13 in a pony racing accident, many of the youngsters appeared at the service in their riding gear.

Jack's grandfather Andrew Moffat and parents Henry and Heather gave us all a lesson in how to grieve with the utmost dignity while paying a magnificent tribute to the boy whose loss has touched people who never even met him, such was the eloquence of their respective eulogies. And during Irish Champions Weekend, Jack de Bromhead was remembered in the red armbands borne by the jockeys in his memory.

In Britain the armbands were a more sombre black. The death of the Queen is in many ways easier to bear than the loss of a teenager with so much sparkle and promise. A 96-year-old woman dying peacefully in the comfort of the Scottish home she adored is what could be described as a 'good death', but Her Majesty's passing is of course far more symbolic than that. Its repercussions will be felt way beyond her funeral next Monday when Britain's period of national mourning ends.

The absence of the sport's most celebrated insider will be felt keenly in racing circles. There are enough members of the royal family with a strong love of horses for us to be able to hope that the Royal Studs will endure, but none of the Queen's descendants appear to share quite the level of absorption and devotion she had for breeding and racing. Change will surely come.

Another two redoubtable members of the racing and breeding community also left us in the last week. On Tuesday evening came the shock news of James Delahooke's sudden death on the Yorkshire moors, while on Saturday the passing was reported of Evie Stockwell, whose contribution to the breeding industry has been enormously significant on both the equine and human front. At the age of 97 she had survived her twin sister Lady Mimi Manton by one month. As Eddie O'Leary observed in Nancy Sexton's tribute to Mrs Stockwell, “The world has lost two Queens this week.”

May it come as some comfort to the de Bromhead, Delahooke, Magnier, and O'Callaghan families that the thoughts of their friends and colleagues in the racing world are with them during this sad time.

The Versatile Dubawi Line

So to the horses. A one-two in the St Leger with Eldar Eldarov (GB) and New London (Ire) gave Dubawi (Ire) his 53rd Group 1 win worldwide, and if you are looking for a pattern for his offspring, the answer is that there isn't one, other than a shared willingness to win.

From top Hong Kong sprinter Lucky Nine (Ire), who was one of his earliest stars, through champion 2-year-olds, Classic milers, smart middle-distance horses, and a Horse of the Year in Ghaiyyath (Ire), Dubawi pretty much has all the bases covered, including a slew of sons at stud. As well as in Britain's final Classic of the season, the line was also represented at Ireland's Champions Weekend when John Fairley's admirable Highfield Princess (Fr), by Dubawi's Guineas-winning son Night Of Thunder (Ire), sped her way to a third consecutive Group 1 win in three different countries, this time dropping back to the minimum trip to claim the Flying Five.

Dubawi's latest Classic winner in the delayed St Leger came on the back of his daughter Mimikyu's win in the G2 Park Hill S. on the same afternoon that the White Birch Farm homebred juvenile Kubrick (Ire) won the G3 Prix des Chenes at Longchamp. On European earnings, Dubawi has edged ahead of Frankel (GB) in the leading sires' table and in fact he is way out in front when it comes to black-type winners for the year, his tally of 38 (12% of his runners) putting him ahead of Frankel by 14. The two mighty stallions, who live only about a mile from each other as the crow flies, are level pegging on seven Group 1 winners apiece this year in Europe.

The Lanwades Success Story Continues

In her role as Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk, Kirsten Rausing was acting as master of ceremonies on Sunday while Newmarket's mayor Philippa Winter read the proclamation of the accession of King Charles III as Britain's new monarch. This meant that Rausing was not on Town Moor to witness a notable first for her as the breeder of a British Classic winner in Eldar Eldarov.

She was however present for her first British Group 1 winner in her own colours when Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) won the Yorkshire Oaks to bring her Group 1 haul to five. Eldar Eldarov and Alpinista are out of the half-sisters Alwilda (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) and All At Sea (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) from the Lanwades Alruccaba (GB) family which just keeps giving.

From a different family entirely springs the expat Zaaki (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}), another redoubtable Lanwades-bred who is thriving in Australia and now has 13 victories to his name, including the G2 Tramway S. on September 3. He is bound for the G1 Cox Plate on October 22 via the G1 Underwood later this month.

Firsts and Seconds For Many

Eldar Eldarov's St Leger win was also of significance for more of his connections. Notably, he became the second breeze-up graduate from Norman Williamson's Oak Tree Farm to win a Classic this season following the Irish 2,000 Guineas success of Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), last year's champion 2-year-old. Williamson was also the breeze-up pinhooker behind the 2019 Preakness S. winner War Of Will, who now stands alongside his sire War Front at Claiborne Farm.

For Roger Varian, it was a second victory in Britain's oldest Classic following Kingston Hill (GB) in 2014, and his faith in his young stable jockey David Egan was repaid handsomely as the 23-year-old notched his first Classic victory in the same season he lost his retainer with Prince AA Faisal, for whom he won the 2021 Saudi Cup as well as two Group 1s aboard Mishriff (Ire).

Eldar Eldarov had been bought at the relocated Arqana Breeze-up Sale for £480,000 by Oliver St Lawrence for Bahrain's KHK Racing, thus also giving that relatively new owner in British racing a significant first Classic success.

Kyprios Continues to Climb

The opening up of the Irish St Leger to older horses almost 40 years ago means that there have been a number of repeat winners, most notably the Dermot Weld-trained Vinnie Roe (Ire), who owned the race between 2001 and 2005. With Vincent O'Brien, Weld jointly holds the record for the most number of winners of the Irish St Leger, with the last two of his nine being provided by the admirable Moyglare Stud-bred filly Search For A Song (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Now six, she has run in the race in all four of her seasons in training, and added a third place to her fine record this year when finishing almost eight lengths behind her full-brother Kyprios (Ire), who is now the pre-eminent stayer in training following his unbeaten season which includes lifting the Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup.

The Weld stable enjoyed a successful Irish Champions Weekend, however, when unleashing the Aga Khan's Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), a half-sister to the brilliant Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), to win the G1 Moyglare Stud S. on just her second racecourse appearance. A day earlier her 3-year-old stablemate Duke De Sessa (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) won the G3 Paddy Power S., leading home a one-two for Maurice Regan's Newtown Anner Stud, which also owned and bred runner-up Thunder Kiss (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}).

Kyprios, who runs in the Moyglare colours but is co-owned by the Coolmore partners, sealed a fruitful weekend for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore as Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) confirmed his juvenile promise by winning the G1 Irish Champion S. on only his second start since resuming from an injury earlier in the season.

Auguste Rodin (Ire), bred on theDeep Impact (Jpn)/Galileo (Ire) cross that has already yielded Classic winners Saxon Warrior (Jpn) and Snowfall (Jpn) for O'Brien, continued the tremendous run of the Ballydoyle juveniles this year with his success in the G2 Champion Juvenile S. in his first run in Pattern class. He could now be headed to England next month for either the Dewhurst or Vertem Futurity. It requires no leap of imagination to see Auguste Rodin make up into a serious Classic contender for next season as the colt is the first foal of the treble Group 1 winner Rhododendron (Ire), a sister to Magical (Ire) and daughter of the equally brilliant Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}).

Hint of Things to Come

Al Riffa (Fr) took quite a step up from maiden company to winning the G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National S. on Sunday for Joseph O'Brien, and the result will certainly have been welcomed by the Coolmore camp. Though the colt from the penultimate French crop of Wootton Bassett (GB) is not owned by the Coolmore team but by Jassim Bin Ali Al Attiyah, he, like Auguste Rodin, is out of a Galileo mare and represents a cross that we are likely to see more frequently in runners following the stallion's move to Coolmore Stud two seasons ago.

The Galileo mares in Wootton Bassett's first Irish crop include Snowfall's dam Best In The World (Ire), Arc winner Found (Ire), and G1 Cheveley Park S. winner Clemmie (Ire), who is also a sister to Churchill (Ire), while those currently in foal to him include Group 1 winners Minding (Ire), Hydrangea (Ire), Marvellous (Ire) and Happily (Ire).

Al Riffa, who was bred by a partnership led by Haras d'Etreham, is Wootton Bassett's sixth Group 1 winner, that group being split evenly between colts and fillies. His pedigree certainly gives plenty of hope for him to thrive with age and a bit of a step up in distance. His unraced dam Love On My Mind is a sister to the dual Sagaro S. winner and Gold Cup runner-up Mizzou (Ire), while their dam Moments Of Joy (GB) was a Listed winner over 1m6f and is herself a daughter of the G1 Prix Vermeille and G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner My Emma (GB) (Marju {Ire}).

Al Riffa was sold as a foal at Arqana to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock for €31,000 the same day that his dam went through the ring for just €11,000, bought by Arqana representative Zied Romdhane. The 10-year-old mare now has a yearling filly by Land Force (Ire) and was subsequently covered by St Leger winner Galileo Chrome (Ire).

Kingsclere in the Spotlight

Andrew Balding's association with Juddmonte has started in some style thanks to the smart juvenile Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who added the G2 Champagne S. to his victory in York's G3 Acomb S.

A successful Doncaster St Leger meeting for the Kingsclere team also included group wins for two stalwart owners of Park House Stables. First, Bounce The Blues (Ire) (Excelebration {Ire}) won the G3 JRA Sceptre Fillies' S for the irrepressible Barbara Keller, one of the most enthusiastic owners in the business who also raced the Grade 1 winner Blond Me (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}). Similar comments apply to Mick and Janice Mariscotti, who certainly know how to celebrate a big winner and struck on Sunday with the G2 Doncaster Cup winner Coltrane (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}). With victories in the Ascot S. at Royal Ascot and in the Listed Esher Cup, the progressive stayer, who missed almost the whole of his 4-year-old season has certainly given the Mariscottis plenty of cause for cheer this year. Patience rewarded.

The spotlight will soon be thrown on the Balding stable which features in a new series to be released later this month on Amazon Prime. 'Horsepower' runs in four parts from September 23 and, according to the press release announcing its launch, it “captures a momentous period in the lives and careers of its two main protagonists, racehorse trainer Andrew Balding and jockey Oisin Murphy”.

The documentary series was being filmed when Murphy was banned for 14 months for Covid regulation and alcohol breaches. The trailer for Horsepower can be viewed below.

Stallions on a Roll

Shadwell's Muhaarar (GB) was represented by Group/Grade 2 winners on each side of the Atlantic last week. On Thursday, Polly Pott (GB) made sure Harry Dunlop's training career will go out with a bang by landing her fourth consecutive win on her first outing in stakes company when winning the G2 May Hill S. at Doncaster.

Over at Kentucky Downs, Bran (Fr) won the GII Fanduel Turf Sprint S. Not only was the John Sadler trainee bred in France by Lordship Stud but she was ridden to victory by French Classic-winning jockey Vincent Cheminaud, who is now based in America.

Ballylinch Stud's Lope De Vega was another stallion to exhibit his versatility on Sunday when represented at Longchamp by G1 Prix Vermeille winner Sweet Lady (Fr) over 1m4f and also by the 5f winner Berneuil (Ire), who landed the G3 Prix du Petit Couvert. Both horses are out of mares by Dansili (GB), which is a cross that has also worked well to produce Grade I winner Capla Temptress (Ire), Group 2 winner Cadillac (Ire), and the dual Group 1 runner-up and Group 3 winner Lope Y Fernandez (Ire).

Lope De Vega has been on a roll of late, with his daughter Dreamloper (Ire) winning the previous weekend's G1 Prix du Moulin to add to her G1 Prix d'Ispahan success, and the aforementioned Duke De Sessa winning a Group 3 on Saturday at Leopardstown.

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Seven Days: Triumph and Despair

There is a charming tradition for the large crowd at Baden-Baden races to applaud the runners as the field passes the post for the first time, never mind in the closing stages. For Sunday's racegoers, many of whom arrived with well-behaved dogs and sometimes less well-behaved children, the excitement level reached near-fever pitch as Frankie Dettori urged home German racing's current hero, Torquator Tasso (Ger). At the post the pair went down by just a head to the winner Mendocino (Ger), another son of Adlerflug (Ger) ridden by the man who knows the Arc winner better than anyone else, his regular jockey Rene Piechulek.

The latter will now presumably be obliged to retain his partnership with the Longchamp-bound Mendocino, and Torquator Tasso's trainer Marcel Weiss acted swiftly to book Dettori for the 5-year-old's defence of the Arc as soon as his debrief was concluded.

It was a dramatic denouement to the 152nd running of the Grosser Preis von Baden in a year when the racecourse had been planning to celebrate the great race's 150th anniversary until the realisation dawned that a miscount some 25 years ago meant that we have jumped straight from the 149th edition last year without a proper fanfare. That won't bother Mendocino's trainer Sarah Steinberg, owner Stall Salzburg and breeder Gestut Brummerhof, who rightly enjoyed this major breakthrough success for the 4-year-old who had previously come closest to winning at group level when finishing second to Alpinista (GB) in last year's G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern.

And this drama was nothing compared to the awful scene played out only ten minutes earlier in Paris as Coroebus (Ire) suffered a fatal injury when launching his challenge in the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. William Buick, the red-hot favourite to be Britain's champion jockey for this first time this year, stood himself down for the rest of the day but appears, thankfully, to have been relatively unscathed in the shocking fall for the 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace S. winner.

Dettori on the other hand received a 14-day ban for going one strike over the permitted whip-use limit on Torquator Tasso which, equally thankfully for him, ends just in time for the duo to renew their acquaintance in the Arc.

Hammer Time

One jockey who kept clear of drama and became well acquainted with the Baden-Baden winner's enclosure on Sunday was Thore Hammer-Hansen. Though currently British-based, Hammer-Hansen has in fact been well acquainted with the racecourse at Iffezheim for most of his life.

“Mum and Dad live at the six-furlong start and I used to go running round here all the time,” he explained after notching the first group win of his career in the G2 Oleander-Rennen for owner-breeder Karl-Dieter Ellebracke of Gestut Auenquelle aboard Dapango (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}). The 22-year-old jockey was joined on the presentation rostrum by his proud father, Danish-born Lennart, formerly a hugely successful jockey in Germany with more than 1,000 wins to his name.

“The whole family is here,” continued Thore, who was previously apprenticed to Richard Hannon and rode out his claim almost a year ago. “I've always said that I'd love to come over for the big races and Gestut Auenquelle have been great supporters from the very beginning, and I am absolutely delighted that they have called me over again. I'd love to come over as much as possible as long as Sir Mark Prescott and the other people I ride for in England are happy about it.”

Hammer-Hansen junior followed up his big-race success immediately when winning the following race on New Moon (Cze) for Jan Korpas, and later made it a treble when winning the Stadt Baden-Baden Cup on Fellow (Ger) for Dr Andreas Bolte.

Vandeberg Enjoying The Moment

Among the crowd was Torquator Tasso's breeder Paul Vandeberg who had made the trip to Iffezheim with two friends and is still pinching himself following the triumphant return of the Arc winner's younger half-brother Tünnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ger}) in the BBAG sales race at Baden-Baden on Wednesday. That victory for the 3-year-old came in his first run since he won the G3 Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen last November.

“I still cannot believe it, that he would come back like that after 10 months off the track,” said Vandeberg, a breeder of some 50 years' standing, as he reflected on the fact that his sole broodmare Tijuana (Ger) (Toylsome {GB}) has hit the jackpot twice already with her second and fourth foals.

“Sometimes you just have the luck,” he added. “And Tijuana is the most wonderful mare. Eight times I have sent her to be covered on foal heat, and eight times she has got in foal straight away.”

Vandeberg was not disheartened by Torquator Tasso's narrow defeat in the Grosser Preis and is already looking forward to him returning to Paris, where he believes the chance of softer ground and the right-hand track will once again play to the horse's strengths. The breeder has plenty more to look forward to than just the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as he has a yearling and foal full-sibling to Torquator Tasso and Tunnes respectively at home.

HKJC Broadens German Link…

There will be hope among the German racing community that a number of its major races may soon feature in the World Pool series. After the Grosser Preis von Berlin being made available for those betting into the Hong Kong Jockey Club pools last month, a further three races from Baden-Baden on Sunday benefited from the same arrangement, including the day's feature, the Grosser Preis von Baden. This led to a busier race programme than usual for the finale at the Iffezheim track, with 12 races in total, starting from 11.15am. Not a day for the fainthearted.

…And American and German Links Deepen

Twenty-four hours after buying the top lot, a Kingman (GB) colt from Gestut Fahrhof, at BBAG's Yearling Sale on Friday, the Roth family's LNJ Foxwoods enjoyed Grade I glory at a different spa town, Saratoga, as the co-owner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Olympiad (Speightstown) with Cheyenne Stables.

There could be a strong contingent with a German background at this year's Breeders' Cup, following the 'win and you're in' success of Virginia Joy (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) in the GII Flower Bowl S. for Peter Brant and Chad Brown. The 5-year-old mare joined Brown's stable last spring having previously been trained in Germany by Torquator Tasso's trainer Marcel Weiss for her breeder Gestut Auenquelle, which is also home to her sire, and previously to the sires of two of her first three dams, Doyen (GB) and Big Shuffle.

With the Gestut Ammerland-bred GI Beverley D S. winner Dalika (Ger) (Pastorius {Ger}) already being aimed towards the Breeders' Cup, and the possibility of Saturday's G2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis winner Amazing Grace (Ger) (Protectionist {Ger}) sure to have a strong chance if she heads to the GI EP Taylor S. in October, it will not be a surprise to see more American visitors attending Germany's major yearling sale in the future.

Minzaal Boosts Shadwell's Great Season

Of course, it hasn't all been happening in Germany this week. For Owen Burrows, the wheel of fortune has spun both ways this season, sometimes in a dizzying fashion, with Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) claiming the trainer's first Group 1 win in the Coronation Cup only to be ruled out of the rest of the season the next day, having picked up an injury in the race.

As Britain's departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson likes to say, “Them's the breaks”. Burrows is an altogether much more honourable type of Englishman than Johnson, and it was therefore pleasing indeed to see him gain his second top-flight victory at the other end of the distance spectrum but for the same owner with Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) in the G1 Sprint Cup at Haydock.

Hukum's brother Baaeed (GB) has gained all the plaudits this season, but he is far from the only star in the Shadwell constellation. Hukum and Minzaal have contributed to a hugely successful season for Sheikha Hissa Hamdan Al Maktoum, who also won the G3 September S. at Kempton on Saturday with the Gosden-trained homebred Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and has another two exciting prospects in the Burrows stable in the Group 3-winning duo of Alflaila (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Anmaat (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}).

The victory of Minzaal also provided a first Group 1 winner as breeder for Derek and Gay Veitch of Ringfort Stud, who have enjoyed some terrific seasons of late, including Minzaal's G2 Gimcrack S. win two years ago, which followed the success of Threat (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) in the same race a year earlier, while Group 2-winning fillies Indie Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}) have also advertised the stud's credentials in recent years.

Ringfort Stud is selling two yearlings at the Tattersalls Somerville Sale on Tuesday, and interested parties will have to get in quick as the colts by first-season sires Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) and Inns Of Court (Ire) go through as lots 9 and 18 respectively.

Vale, Jack de Bromhead

The racing and sales wheels keep turning in relentless fashion at this time of year but, absorbed as we all may be with this hectic scene, none of it really matters when set against the tragic accident at the Glenbeigh pony races on Saturday. That young Jack de Bromhead died doing what he loved will be of little comfort or consolation in these saddest of days to those who mourn his absence. To Jack's family and friends we offer our sincere condolences.

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Seven Days: Perfect News For Haggas

Few, if any, trainers have been in more consistent form this season than William Haggas, who now finds himself atop the table in Britain, with a strike-rate of 27% for the season. His earnings of £4,611,340 at the time of writing place him narrowly ahead of reigning champion Charlie Appleby.

Top of the Somerville Lodge list of horses, and the earner of roughly a third of the yard's prize-money this year, is of course arguably the best horse in the world, Baaeed (GB), around whom continues to swirl uncertainty as to where we will see him next. What we now know with some certainty is that he will appear only once more on the racecourse, but whether that will be at Ascot or ParisLongchamp seems largely dependent on how soft the ground becomes in October following a drought-ridden summer.

The Haggas stable is no one-trick pony, however. Star of the show Baaeed is backed by a supporting cast which includes G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Alenquer (Fr), the Group 2 and 3 winners Sea La Rosa (Ire), Maljoom (Ire), Purlepay (Fr), Lilac Road (Ire), My Prospero (Ire), Ilarab (Ire), Bashkirova (GB), and the Haggas family homebred, Hamish (GB). A particularly pleasing result for the team would have been the victory nine days ago of Perfect News (GB) in the G3 Ballyogan S., a first at group level for the daughter of Frankel (GB) and the former Haggas-trained G2 Lowther S. winner Besharah (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who died earlier this year at the age of just nine.

The championship is far from over, with some of the most valuable races of the season still to be run during an action-packed autumn. Haggas will doubtless be guided not just by weather forecasts but by Baaeed's owner Sheikha Hissa when it comes to deciding on the colt's swansong. While the Arc is the more valuable race overall, the near £750,000 on offer for the winner of the QIPCO British Champion S. could potentially make the difference for Haggas to gain his own championship for the first time.

The relentless winner-producing machine that is Mark Johnston reached a new milestone in the last week when passing the 5,000 mark. Technically speaking, the Johnston counter was reset to zero on New Year's Day 2022 when the trainer brought son Charlie on board as co-trainer, but only a pedant could insist that Johnston senior, one of racing's most successful participants and clearest thinkers, could be denied a continuing tally.

Donny Dances to the Tune

I was strolling on a quiet Scottish beach last week while my colleague Brian Sheerin did the hard yards at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. The Highland idyll was interrupted every now and then to check on proceedings at Doncaster, where the words 'frenetic' and 'hunger' appeared to be being bandied around with frequency. Indeed, the final results testified to the strength in demand across the board that is extremely welcome at a yearling sale pitched at a more everyday level than the elite boutiques of Arqana August, Goffs Orby or Tattersalls October Book 1.

There had been pre-sale angst in some quarters that the relatively new Tattersalls Somerville Sale had been taking some of the Premier Sale's ground but that appears to have been unfounded, and Donny did as Donny does, only better again than last year. A rise in the number of six-figure lots and strong clearance rate pulled the rest of the sale up by its bootstraps to deliver what appears to be a satisfying set of figures.

The results from next Tuesday's Somerville Sale will be indicative as to whether this level of demand is set to continue as the season wears on. Considering racing's myriad problems, particularly in Britain, it is heartening, and perhaps somewhat mystifying, that this bullish market for horses continues not just at the very top level but on lower tiers as well. Yes, to a degree, there will be people buying with a close eye on the overseas resale market, and that includes the bold breeze-up pinhookers. But a scroll through the results shows that there remains a huge range of trainers waving their catalogues to start the annual restocking of their yards, which is an encouraging sign.

John and Jess Dance's Manor House Farm was the second-leading buyer at the sale which must remain a favourite to them, having purchased the mighty Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) at Doncaster six years ago. The Dances can also take encouragement from the excellent start made at Manor House by their resident trainer James Horton, who now has 12 wins to his name and sent out his first stakes winner at the weekend when Sam Maximus (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) won the Listed Hopeful S. at Newmarket. The 3-year-old was bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud, which continues to enjoy an excellent year courtesy of its graduates.

The sales caravan rolls on next to the somewhat depleted Osarus Yearling Sale at La Teste de Buch on Tuesday, with much livelier fare likely to emanate from Germany's main event, the BBAG Yearling Sale, on Friday. I've been lured back from the beach for a return to the glorious spa town of Baden-Baden later this week. Go figure.

Buick Forges On

There are few nicer people to bump into for a quick chat at the sales than Walter Buick and his son Martin, who now works with agent Hubie de Burgh having completed a stint with the Niarchos family. Walter, a former multiple champion jockey in Scandinavia, is a regular buyer for a number of his contacts in that part of the world and can count this year's Swedish Derby and Norwegian Derby winner Hard One To Please (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) among his recent purchases.

The greatest result of the season for the Buick family, however, will be if William, the eldest of Walter's three sons, is crowned champion jockey at Ascot in October, and it is a scenario that becomes more likely by the day.

After an extraordinary week, particularly at Goodwood, where he won all three group races on Saturday and eight of his 12 rides there across the weekend, William added another 13 wins to his name and is now 43 clear in the championship (though only nine wins ahead of Hollie Doyle for the year as a whole).

Tempus Fugit

While William Buick was hogging the Goodwood group action, his nearest pursuer for the title of champion jockey, Hollie Doyle, added yet another black-type victory to her increasingly impressive record at Deauville on Tempus (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who has now won back-to-back Group 3 races for Archie Watson and the Hambleton Racing syndicate.

Tempus was already a four-time winner with a rating of 97 for Roger Charlton and Juddmonte when he came up for sale exactly a year ago, and it now seems scarcely believable that the half-brother to Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) was bought for just 25,000gns. But by the time he popped up in the Tattersalls August Sale he had missed all of the 2021 season with what Juddmonte's useful and typically fulsome sales notes described as “sub condyle bone bruising in his left fore and left hind cannon bones” and which noted that Tempus had “exhibited a high level of form but is delicate”.

So, caveat emptor and all that, but in this case the outlay of 25,000gns was a risk worth taking because Tempus really is now flying. Making his first start for more than a year, and since being gelded, the 6-year-old won at Newcastle on January 2 and, with another five starts and a ratings rise to 103, he struck again at Ascot on July 23. Following that latest handicap success his two subsequent runs–and wins–have been in the G3 Sovereign S. at Salisbury, followed by Sunday's G3 Prix de Quincey. What next for the son of Group 1 winner Passage Of Time (GB)?

And talking of time flying, Deauville's August meeting has passed in what seems like the blink of an eye, and it has been a fruitful one for the Andre Fabre-trained Botanik (GB), who won the G3 Prix de Reux followed by Sunday's G2 Grand Prix de Deauville. With seven wins under his belt he thus becomes the top performer for his sire Golden Horn (GB). The Derby and Arc winner of 2015 recently moved from Dalham Hall Stud to Overbury Stud and has been represented in the past fortnight by the Ebor winner Trawlerman (GB) and Juddmonte's Listed Galtres S. winner Haskoy (GB), who appears to be heading next to the G2 Park Hill S. at Doncaster.

Classic Potential?

If you saddle a horse with the name Classic, you'd have to be pretty sure he was worthy of such a portentous moniker. In the case of the 2-year-old Classic (GB), a winner at Newmarket for Richard Hannon on Friday, he had justifiable claims to a proper name just on paper, for the colt is a son of Dubawi (Ire) out of the stakes-placed Date With Destiny (Ire), the only offspring of the subfertile and ill-fated superstar George Washington (Ire).

Date With Destiny raced in the colours of Julie Wood, who now owns her son Classic. She has already produced the Group 3 winner Beautiful Morning (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), and Classic could yet surpass his elder sister as he has some pretty fancy entries in the coming months.

“He still has signs of immaturity there but he is a very talented horse,” said Hannon of the colt, who was making his third start on Friday. “It wouldn't surprise me if we see him turn up at the top level, especially on soft ground. We will speak to Julie but she is never afraid of taking on these big races. I'd say there is a fair chance we go to the Champagne at Doncaster next.”

The Group 2 on September 10 is certainly a race in which the trainer has enjoyed plenty of success, having won three of the last eight runnings of the Champagne S.

Date With Destiny, who is now 14, remains in the Newsells Park Stud broodmare band and will be represented at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by her colt from the first crop of another Newsells Park graduate, the Arc winner Waldgeist (GB).

Secretariat's Silks For Sale

With the yearling sales in full flow, there is of course no guarantee that any of us will ever find a horse as good as Secretariat, but next Tuesday there is (bizarrely) a chance to bid for the right to register the famous colours carried by Penny Chenery's Triple Crown winner.

Officially described as 'royal blue and white check, striped sleeves, royal blue cap', the set of colours formerly worn by the champion lovingly known as 'Big Red' is one of six to be offered for auction by the BHA during Sotheby's sporting memorabilia sale on September 6. The sextet of cherished colours also includes the distinctive set of aquamarine jacket and black cap and, according to the BHA's notes, the auction “presents the opportunity to purchase a unique set of silks that are not available to own through any alternative avenue”.

The guide price for Secretariat's silks is £5,000-£10,000. Then all you have to do is find a horse to wear them who moves like a tremendous machine.

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