Last term's G1 Futurity Trophy second, who annexed Epsom's Listed Blue Riband Trial on sophomore return, was swiftly into stride from the inside gate and raced under a firm hold in third through the early fractions as Nostrum set the tone up front. Nudged along soon after passing halfway, the 6-1 chance was ridden to go second approaching the final furlong and swept by that rival inside the final 100 yards to prevail by a length from the odds-on favourite in ultimately snug fashion. Charles Hills trainee and G1 2000 Guineas fourth and G1 Irish 2000 Guineas fifth Galeron (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) was best of the remainder and finished 1 1/2 lengths further adrift in third.

“Epictetus showed plenty of speed over a mile at two and we thought he was a horse who would progress to 10 furlongs this year, but that did not pan out,” explained Thady Gosden. “He has run good races, but not what we thought that he was capable of. It was a perfect ride from Frankie. He broke well, sat him on the fence and followed Ryan [Moore]. Nostrum is a very smart horse, but Frankie gave our horse a brilliant ride. Epictetus ran a very good race last year [in the Futurity Trophy] at Doncaster when second to a future Derby winner on soft ground. He rolls his knee a little bit and is bred to like a little bit of give in the ground. It is slightly less tacky today and a bit more good to soft.” Looking ahead, Gosden continued, “There is a mile race back here, the [G2] Celebration Mile, which fits in well.”

Dettori, who extended his winningmost record in the race to seven, added, “We tried Epictetus three times over 10 furlongs and we always had an excuse. John and Thady found this race over a mile and the favourite looked very hard to beat. I had a good passage and, once I got the gap [inside the final quarter-mile], it was up to me to do the rest. Ryan wasn't stopping and my horse showed a turn of foot. Now we've got the distance right, we can concentrate on mile races. He is ready to go up in grade and the Celebration Mile in three weeks springs to mind. There are lots of races in the autumn at Newmarket, and maybe over Arc weekend. He has beat a decent field today in style and we can make big plans.”

Reflecting on the performance of Nostrum, Sir Michael Stoute's assistant James Savage commented, “Ryan thought that he had the race in the perfect place four out, picked up the pace to the two and he thought the race was for us. He said that the last 100 yards felt like he had a puncture and the horse didn't get home. We have always thought that he would handle ease in the ground, but I think maybe that dead ground has just probably caught him out in the last stages. It is very different ground to the [Newmarket] July meeting. We just felt he didn't hit the line today, so we will give him a good check over and re-group. He is a very, very good horse and we are not going to lose any faith in him. He will have all the best entries and we will just have to get it right next time. He will be an even better horse next year.”

Pedigree Notes
Epictetus, the fifth foal of seven foals, is one of five winners produced by G1 Pretty Polly S. heroine Thistle Bird (GB) (Selkirk), herself a half-sister to dual Group 3-winning G1 Cantala S. second McCreery (GB) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}) out of the dual stakes-winning G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest third Dolma (Fr) (Marchand De Sable). Thistle Bird was a 750,000gns purchase, carrying Epictetus, at Tattersalls' 2019 December Mares fixture and has also produced last term's G3 Valiant S. victrix Jumbly (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), the hitherto unraced 2-year-old colt Burrito (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and a weanling colt by Frankel (GB). The May-foaled bay's stakes-placed third dam Young Manila (Manila) is kin to a trio of stakes performers headed by MGSW G2 Prix de Royallieu victrix Fabulous Hostess (Fabulous Dancer).

Epictetus returns to winning ways in the Group 3 @bonhams1793 Thoroughbred Stakes, with Kingman colt scooting past Nostrum inside the final furlong to score under a cool ride from @FrankieDettori for the Gosden team. pic.twitter.com/ayjhtbWyae

— Goodwood Racecourse (@Goodwood_Races) August 4, 2023

Friday, Goodwood, Britain
BONHAMS THOROUGHBRED S.-G3, £100,000, Goodwood, 8-4, 3yo, 8fT, 1:41.04, sf.
1–EPICTETUS (IRE), 129, c, 3, by Kingman (GB)
1st Dam: Thistle Bird (GB) (G1SW-Ire, MGSW & G1SP-Eng, G1SP-Fr, $577,634), by Selkirk
2nd Dam: Dolma (Fr), by Marchand De Sable
3rd Dam: Young Manila, by Manila
1ST GROUP WIN. O/B-George Strawbridge (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. £56,710. Lifetime Record: G1SP-Eng, 8-3-2-0, $234,588. *1/2 to Jumbly (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), GSW-Eng & GSP-Ire, $164,451; and Bullfinch (GB) (Kodiac {GB}), SP-Aus, $214,235. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Nostrum (GB), 129, c, 3, Kingman (GB)–Mirror Lake (GB), by Dubai Destination. O-Juddmonte; B-Juddmonte Farms (East) Ltd (GB); T-Sir Michael Stoute. £21,500.
3–Galeron (Ire), 129, c, 3, Camacho (GB)–Society Gal (Ire), by Galileo (Ire). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (€45,000 Ylg '21 GOFOR). O-Teme Valley & Aura Racing; B-Gigginstown House Stud (IRE); T-Charles Hills. £10,760.
Margins: 1, 1HF, NK. Odds: 6.00, 0.67, 14.00.
Also Ran: Knight (Ire), Bold Discovery, Docklands (GB), Montesilvano (Ire).

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13.35 Chantilly, Debutantes, €50,000, 2yo, c/g, 5 1/2fT
HANTANO (IRE) (Dubawi {Ire}) is a fascinating runner in this intriguing and valuable juvenile opener to the Prix du Jockey Club fixture, being a son of George Strawbridge's remarkable six-times group 1 winner Moonlight Cloud (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Yet to produce a black-type performer, he is in the charge of Victoria Head and encounters The Aga Khan's Shadizi (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), a Francis-Henri Graffard-trained half-brother to the multiple group-placed Shahnaza (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}).

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The April-foaled bay, whose resume also features wins in the G3 Prix Minerve, G2 Park Hill S. and G2 Lancashire Oaks, was settled off a sedate pace in sixth until turning for home. Making eyecatching progress on the bridle once into the straight, the 6-5 favourite assumed control passing the quarter-mile marker and kept on strongly, despite edging right in the closing stages, to withstand the persistent threat of last term's Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial victrix Rogue Millennium (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) by a neck. The Knavesmire's stewards were called into action in the immediate aftermath, but allowed the finishing order to remain unchanged.

“She [nearly] got put through the rails at Haydock [in the Lancashire Oaks last year] and won despite that near fatal accident,” reflected John Gosden after notching a fourth win in the contest. “She has come back from a nasty injury and 10 months off and it was a long way for her to come back, physically and mentally. She's done that and showed a great attitude, so we couldn't be more pleased with her. She was running way below her [optimum] trip today. She wasn't originally in the race, but [owner] Mr [George] Strawbridge is over from America to see Epictetus run in the Dante and we thought we'd supplement Free Wind and run her, too. She's done great as this trip is a bit sharp for her. She's won a Park Hill over a mile-and-six furlongs, which is a slightly different ball game, and we're very clear that we're going a mile-and-a-half next time. She's in the [G2] Hardwicke [at Royal Ascot] and that would be a strong possibility at this stage.”

Rogue Millennium holds a special place in Tom Clover's heart and the Newmarket-based conditioner was delighted by the performance of his stable star. “She ran a lovely race and Jack [Mitchell] gave her a lovely ride,” he said. “He followed Frankie the whole way and she takes a step forward with each run. She ran well in France and ran well in the Magnolia at Kempton, when she didn't get a clear run. She didn't have a clear run in France either. She's a really lovely filly, she's improved from three to four and was well sourced by the [Rogues Gallery] team. It's great to have a high-class filly of this nature and it would be lovely to win a Group race with her this year. The obvious targets would either be the [G3] Hoppings [S. at Newcastle] or the [G1] Pretty Polly in Ireland, so we'll see.”

Pedigree Notes
Free Wind, one of her late sire's 242 pattern-race winners, is the second of four foals and one of two scorers for multiple stakes-winning G3 Dance Design S. placegetter Alive Alive Oh (GB) (Duke of Marmalade {Ire}), herself half to G3 Fukushima Kinen and G3 Tanabata Sho victor Crescendo Love (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}). Alive Alive Oh is also kin to the dam of the dual stakes-placed Soldier's Minute (GB) (Raven's Pass). The April-foaled bay's second dam Higher Love (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), who was runner-up in the Listed Cheshire Oaks, is out of Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial runner-up Dollar Bird (Ire) (Kris {GB}), herself a half-sister to G2 King Edward VII S.-winning sire Amfortas (Ire) (Caerleon) and to the dam of G1 1000 Guineas heroine Virginia Waters (Kingmambo) and G1SP sires Chevalier (Ire) (Danehill) and Alexander of Hales (Danehill). Alive Alive Oh has a 2-year-old full-brother to Free Wind yet to come.

Thursday, York, Britain
AL BASTI EQUIWORLD DUBAI MIDDLETON FILLIES' S.-G2, £154,800, York, 5-18, 4yo/up, f, 10f 56yT, 2:10.06, g/f.
1–FREE WIND (IRE), 128, m, 5, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Alive Alive Oh (GB) (SW & GSP-Ire), by Duke Of Marmalade (Ire)
2nd Dam: Higher Love (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
3rd Dam: Dollar Bird (Ire), by Kris (GB)
(325,000gns Ylg '19 TATOCT). O-George Strawbridge; B-Mrs Sue Ann Foley (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. £87,787. Lifetime Record: GSW-Fr, 8-6-1-0, $348,472. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Rogue Millennium (Ire), 128, f, 4, Dubawi (Ire)–Hawaafez (GB), by Nayef. (35,000gns 2yo '21 TATMA). O-The Rogues Gallery; B-Shadwell Estate Company Ltd (IRE); T-Tom Clover. £33,282.
3–Poptronic (GB), 128, f, 4, Nathaniel (Ire)–Alpine Dream (Ire), by Dream Ahead. O/B-David & Yvonne Blunt (GB); T-Karl Burke. £16,656.
Margins: HF, 2 3/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 1.20, 20.00, 25.00.
Also Ran: State Occasion (GB), Stay Alert (GB), Sea Silk Road (Ire), Aristia (Ire). Scratched: Toskana Belle (Fr).

Free Wind goes in for Frankie!

It wasn't plain sailing for warm favourite Free Wind but @FrankieDettori had kept some in reserve for the closing stages of the Group 2 @ABE_Dubai Middleton Fillies' Stakes.@thadygosden | @yorkracecourse pic.twitter.com/2I3nwZWRiA

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 18, 2023

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Joy Huntress (Kitten's Joy) (hip 59) is an unraced 3-year-old broodmare prospect out of Money Huntress (Mineshaft), who is a daughter of Grade I winner Favorite Funtime (Seeking the Gold). Joy Huntress is a full-sister to graded stakes winner Noble Beauty and to multiple stakes winner and multiple stakes producer Adorable Miss.

You Gotta Be (Curlin) (hip 60) is a 4-year-old broodmare prospect out of Milania (Bernardini), a daughter of GI Kentucky Oaks winner Keeper Hill (Deputy Minister).

The full catalogue for the digital auction features horses of racing age, breeding stock, including mares with foals at foot, 2-year-olds, and yearlings.

For more information, visit digital.fasigtipton.com.

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“It was very testing conditions today,” John Gosden said. “Frankie said he was a little bit lonely in front and he got to the front sooner than he wanted. He has wintered well and is a grand horse, but he hasn't been training on that. He has gone and done it well and shown a good attitude, but just in the end he was looking about a bit and getting tired.”

Whether Epictetus eventually comes back here for the Derby or to Chantilly for the G1 Prix du Jockey Club is up in the air, with the May 18 G2 Dante S. set to provide more clues. “We will go to the Dante and take it from there,” Gosden Sr added. “He may well be more a Prix du Jockey Club horse. Certainly his pedigree might indicate that. We will get to the Dante and make a decision.”

Epictetus is kept up to his work to land the Listed @weatherbysltd Digital Solutions Blue Riband Trial, shaken up close home but ultimately good value for the win in the hands of @FrankieDettori for John & Thady Gosden pic.twitter.com/uNnLidk8HC

— Epsom Downs Racecourse (@EpsomRacecourse) April 25, 2023

Epictetus is the fifth foal out of Thistle Bird, who also captured two renewals of the G3 Princess Elizabeth S. A half to the dual group 3 winner and G1 Cantala S. runner-up McCreery (GB) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}), she is out of the triple listed-winning G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest third Dolma (Fr) (Marchand de Sable). Thistle Bird's daughter Jumbly (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), who captured the G3 Valiant S. and Listed Radley S. and was runner-up in the G3 Fred Darling S., was a 1.25million gns purchase by M V Magnier at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, while she also has the unraced 3-year-old colt Burrito (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}).

WEATHERBYS DIGITAL SOLUTIONS BLUE RIBAND TRIAL-Listed, £50,000, Epsom, 4-25, 3yo, 10f 17yT, 2:20.00, sf.
1–EPICTETUS (IRE), 129, c, 3, by Kingman (GB)
     1st Dam: Thistle Bird (GB) (G1SW-Ire, MGSW & G1SP-Eng, G1SP-Fr, $577,634), by Selkirk
     2nd Dam: Dolma (Fr), by Marchand De Sable
     3rd Dam: Young Manila, by Manila
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O/B-George Strawbridge (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden; J-Frankie Dettori. £28,355. Lifetime Record: G1SP-Eng, 4-2-2-0, $110,052. *1/2 to Jumbly (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), GSW-Eng, $123,850; 1/2 to Bullfinch (GB) (Kodiac {GB}), SP-Aus, $193,673.
2–Hadrianus (Ire), 129, c, 3, Galileo (Ire)–Laugh Out Loud (GB), by Clodovil (Ire).
1ST BLACK TYPE. (62,000gns Ylg '21 TADEY). O-Susan and John Waterworth; B-C O P Hanbury (IRE); T-Charlie Johnston. £10,750.
3–Cite d'Or (Fr), 124, f, 3, Galiway (GB)–Tin Rebel (Fr), by Tin Horse (Ire).
1ST BLACK TYPE. (€10,000 Ylg '21 ARQAU; 17,000gns RNA 2yo '22 TATBRG; €43,000 2yo '22 ARQJUL). O-Nick Bradley Racing 18; B-Mme C Vitse, G Vitse & P Decouz (FR); T-Harry Eustace. £5,380.
Margins: 3/4, 3/4, 6HF. Odds: 0.40, 9.00, 33.00.
Also Ran: Think First (Ire), Stormbuster (GB). Scratched: Intricacy (GB).

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14.25 Epsom, Listed, £50,000, 3yo, 10f 17yT
EPICTETUS (IRE) (Kingman {GB}) makes his eagerly-awaited 3-year-old bow in this Listed Weatherbys Digital Solutions Blue Riband Trial, which should be his for the taking if he is able to replicate the form of his second in the G1 Futurity Trophy at Doncaster in October. Also runner-up in the G3 Autumn S., George Strawbridge's son of the G1 Pretty Polly S. heroine Thistle Bird (GB) (Selkirk) is one of John and Thady Gosden's bigger guns on the trial to the blue riband itself on the first Saturday in June. Up against him is KHK Racing's Wolverhampton novice scorer Intricacy (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), a Simon and Ed Crisford-trained relative of Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa) who was a €750,000 purchase at the Arqana Deauville August Sale.

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Back in the early 1980s Bacharach was staying in downtown Lexington, having been driven down from a concert in Cincinnati the night before so that he could visit his mares and foals before flying on to his next show.

Catherine Parke was still in her twenties, having barely established Valkyre Stud on a parcel of land near Georgetown, maybe 50 acres. She was waiting outside the hotel in her little two-door jeep, in her recollection about seven feet from nose to tail, when a gleaming white stretch limousine pulled up opposite.

Bacharach emerged from the lobby, understated in his blue jeans and gray sweatshirt. He looked at the limo, then at the jeep, walked over and gave Parke a hug. And suddenly here was this guy running up from the limo. Parke recognized the manager of a prominent Bluegrass operation.

“Mr. Bacharach!” he exclaimed. “I'm so-and-so of […?!] Farm. We'd love to take you around today, maybe see some stallions, whatever you'd like to do, sir! We'd love to meet you and talk about handling your business.”

Bacharach turned politely to the manager and his chauffeur. “Thank you, boys,” he said. “But I've already made my plans.”

Burt Bacharach | Benoit photo

“And off we went bouncing up to the farm in the old jeep,” Parke recalls. “And he had a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, and spent two hours with his horses. I think that farm must have paid the bellhops or somebody to let them know when prominent people were in town, so that they could entertain them.

“But that's exactly why Burt was with me. Same with the Moscarellis, his lifelong managers on the farm in West Virginia: they were hands-on all the time. He wanted to talk to the person that fed his horses that day.”

And, gosh, does the second story show that he got that with Parke! For it was her unstinting devotion to his Heartlight No. One (Rock Talk), champion sophomore filly of 1983, that not only assured Bacharach that his mares in Kentucky were in the right hands, but also convinced Parke herself that she had found her true vocation.

“Heartlight had cracked her pelvis in a workout and colicked literally every week,” Parke explains. “I had to give her timothy hay, and steam-crimped plain oats with just mineral on it. If she had sweet feed, or grass, she'd colic right away. So she had this big dry lot, almost three-quarters of an acre, and Burt built her a great big covered hayrack. And she could go in and out, between there and her stall, any time she wanted, day and night, because the more she moved, the better.

“The problem was that I couldn't afford year-round night watch. So I got this sensor from Australia, a little radio transmitter you hooked to her halter. And if she lay her head down flat for more than three seconds it would send a signal that reached me anywhere on the farm. My bedroom was very close to her paddock and when this beeper went off, I'd run out in the middle of the night and give her a shot of Banamine. And after about 45 minutes she'd shake her head and get up. If ever I couldn't be there for some reason, someone was always in my house with that beeper.”

There were no holidays, anyway: every cent was going into barns and fencing and, a little at a time, mares as well. But the bond she developed with this precious animal was such that she feels as though she got more back than she ever had to give.

“Honestly, she was the smartest, most intelligent horse I've ever been around in my life,” she says. “If she started colicking in her paddock, she'd stand screaming at the gate. I'd run over and her eyes were dilating but when she saw me come running with that shot, she'd hold still and wait. I suppose it was a conditioned response, after a while she realized that when I gave her that poke on her neck she was going to start feeling better. Anyway she would just stand there quietly and as soon as she'd had the shot she'd go back down, because she was in pain. She survived two colic surgeries but not the third, by which time she was 18.”

But then Bacharach knew already that he could trust this novice. Their first dealings had been when he called Dick Broadbent's office, where Parke was working as a bloodstock analyst. She was trying to get started as an agent, too, but charged no commission for securing him a season once she gleaned that he had been offered terms elsewhere that were, shall we say, not quite disinterested.

Again, Parke got far more in return for her probity than she could ever believe she merited. “For me to have a champion filly on the farm, at that age, was surreal,” she says. “Of course I was starstruck, but Burt was always so kind. I'd get to go backstage and meet Dionne Warwick, front row seats, all of that. He let me accept his TOBA award because he was doing a concert. I wouldn't know about his other life, but I know how he loved his horses. He called all the time, wanting to know how Heartlight was doing, how the babies were doing. He was very involved emotionally with them all.”

Catherine Parke at Valkyre | Keeneland photo

Having ridden hunters since girlhood in rural Ohio, Parke had come to the University of Kentucky primarily in the hope of galloping racehorses at Keeneland. But the racetrack back then was a hostile environment for a young woman, and she soon gravitated towards farm work. On leaving school, she found cherished mentors in Henry White of Plum Lane Farm and then Broadbent. Usefully, the latter hated flying and Parke gained valuable experience by being dispatched far and wide on his behalf. She started out leasing a barn and run-in shed, with a mare of her own plus a single client.

“Then I had some people come to me from California, and they're like my parents now,” she says gratefully. “Bill and Betty Currin, and Pat and Bill Klussman. They said why don't you get your own place? So I did.”

Parke has lavishly repaid the fidelity of both couples. The Klussmans had Ava Knowsthecode (Cryptoclearance)—graded stakes-placed, albeit “her legs were just a little too short” to go as fast as she wanted—who produced Grade I winners Justin Phillip (First Samurai) and Greenpointcrusader (Bernardini) as well as the latter's brother, GIII Holy Bull S. winner and sire Algorithms. That secured a $1.2 million dividend through her yearling son by Tapit.

The Currins, meanwhile, had Wilshewed (Carson City), who similarly produced Grade I winner Stormello (Stormy Atlantic) and two other graded stakes winners, plus a seven-figure yearling of her own. Then there was Robert Spiegel, who bred dual GI Santa Anita H. winner Milwaukee Brew (Wild Again) from a mare who soon afterwards produced a Cozzene filly to become another million-dollar baby. (Her commission built Parke's office.) Another of the first horses to put the farm on the map was elite turf runner Riskaverse (Dynaformer), raised here for Peter Schiff's Fox Ridge Farm.

In Parke's own cause, meanwhile, the cornerstone was the purchase of the 10-year-old Silk n' Sapphire (Smart Strike) from William A. Carl, for just $40,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2008.

“Mr. Carl was an equine insurance executive, and a very nice man,” Parke says. “He only had a small broodmare band but my goodness, he was extremely successful. They started out as very light pedigrees but now you see his bloodlines everywhere.

“Well, when I bought Silky it still looked very light. At the time Smart Strike wasn't yet considered a broodmare sire. But I had a very limited budget. And when I looked at her, I loved her physical: big, strong, very correct.”

And there was a clincher. Just a couple of hours after she was due in the ring, her 2-year-old daughter by Pleasantly Perfect was to debut for Graham Motion at Laurel. Parke had known Motion since raising one of his earliest graded stakes winners, Bursting Forth (Alwasmi), for Sam Huff. So she made a call.

“You know, Cathie, I quite like this filly,” Motion told her. “I think she can run a little bit.”

Knowing his understated style, that was good enough for Parke. Sure enough, Shared Account not only won that same day but went on to become a Breeders' Cup winner, besides since producing another one in Sharing (Speightstown).

“It was just meant to be,” Parke says. “And when I bought her, Silky was carrying a Pleasant Tap filly. We sold her for $475,000 as a yearling and she became [graded stakes winner] Colonial Flag. So that truly was a life-changer for me. I was able to pay some debt down, and buy her half-sister Champagne Sue (Elusive Quality). And then Silky had a $1.2 million yearling.”

But there was more to come. Champagne Sue produced that good 2-year-old of a couple of summers ago, High Oak (Gormley). And Silky's final gift before retirement, a 2019 filly by Hard Spun, has proved beyond price.

“When she had a filly, there was no way I could sell,” Parke avows. “Silky was still very healthy but had this issue retaining fluid. It was very difficult to get her in foal. But Dr. Karen Wolfsdorf, who's just a brilliant reproductive veterinarian, wouldn't give up. We did a lot of procedures and she got in foal fine, carried the foal fine, and foaled easy as could be.”

The Hard Spun filly showed such an immediate and astonishing competitive instinct that Parke had to provide her dam with a raised feed tub.

“She would kick at her mother and run her off the feed tub when she was, oh, 30 days old,” Parke marvels. “Silky's 16.1 and a big strong mare but that baby, she was tough.”

Needless to say, the filly was sent to Motion—via Robbie Harris in Ocala, who Parke salutes for teaching even this feisty youngster to relax. But the filly's ardor remained intact.

“She got turned sideways in a couple of races as a 2-year-old, got slammed really hard, but she got up and came running,” Parke recalls. “She's got no quit in her. It's just the blood, isn't it? She has the ability plus the heart, just pricks her ears and runs.”

Her name is Sparkle Blue, and Motion brought her through the ranks to round off her sophomore campaign on the brink of the elite: winning a graded stakes at the Keeneland fall meet before overcoming a rough trip for third in the GI American Oaks at Santa Anita.

“Graham hopes that she'll be even better at four,” Parke says. “She's changed tremendously since she was young, I don't know if it's the sire, or because she was a May foal. But you keep thinking you're going to wake up and it's all a dream. I've sold plenty of good horses for my clients, and enjoyed watching them run. And I've sold some good ones on my own. But you don't ever expect anything like this, it's just been an unbelievable gift.”

The experience has been “wonderfully” enhanced by George Strawbridge, who doesn't typically engage in partnerships but attests to Parke's standing in our community with his willingness to make an exception this time. Both are thoroughly in tune with Motion's patient style and Sparkle Blue has duly been indulged with a winter break, for a potential resumption at the Keeneland spring meet.

“And I can't say enough about Graham,” Parke emphasizes. “He's a great horseman, genuine and kind, a great communicator: really the kind of person we want to showcase our sport. Which is important, as we try to clean it up. I am an eternal optimist, and really think that we're turning the corner in some very important ways.”

True, she is dismayed by certain trends within bloodstock. When she started out, in 1978, she could sell foals out of ageing stakes producers. But now she finds that an ageing mare is no longer 18, but 13. And she's depressed by the difference in the kind of stallions used by clients who sell their foals, as opposed to those who want to runners to build a family. She misses the days when trainers would scout the sales themselves, and deplores the agents and pinhookers frightened to buy a nice foal by even a second-crop sire.

By this stage, however, she has long established what works for her farm. It has always housed around 30 mares, as a number that permits hands-on management, and doesn't accept the familiar mantra that youngsters need only to be left “to be horses.” Horses leaving her farm should be mentally equal to the regime that awaits them.

“I don't shed raise, I don't hothouse, but I do like to bring everything in once a day,” she explains. “In the afternoon they eat outside, they get to be competitive and bump each other around. But in the morning they come in, they get temped, they eat. Because someday they're going to have to be in a stall, and I don't want them to think of that just as somewhere they get vaccinations and their feet trimmed. I want them to lie down and find their stall's kindness.”

If she's noticed a pattern at all, it's that those whose personalities change after weaning tend not to cope at the racetrack.

“So the mind, to me, is very important,” she reflects. “They can be great-looking athletes, but even from our really good families we've had some that were too nervous and frantic. One of them was really gorgeous, but ended up mean and didn't train. They were all with good trainers, they just couldn't hold up at the track. So, long story short, I think disposition just as important as conformation.”

But she acknowledges that different things work for different people; that some investors, unlike Bacharach, are actually happier getting into that big white limo.

“It's relationships,” she says with a shrug. “Like there are big banks, small banks. I mean, I'm like my little bank in Georgetown. I've lost one client in 40 years—and we actually topped a sale that day! But he just said he needed a big fancy farm, somewhere to take people. I said, 'Well, I have a very pretty farm, but I don't have parties.' But that's okay. That's what suited him. And thank God we have the big corporate farms. We need them, to keep the stallions here. But everyone else I've worked for, from day one, wanted to talk to the person that saw their horse.”

She named it Valkyre “because that was where the maidens waited for the war heroes to come home.” Of course her venerable ladies are still here, too, cherished in retirement: Ava Knowsthecode, Wilshewed, Silky. But last week a fresh cycle began, with an auspiciously smooth foaling: nine o'clock in the evening, no assistance required, a healthy foal. And Parke was as excited as when the whole thing first began.

Back in those early days, she remembers a limousine ride to the Derby with Bacharach. (It wasn't always that jeep, then!) And he fell quiet for 20 minutes, working out a melody that had just come to him. It turned out to be That's What Friends Are For. And the eventual lyrics couldn't be more apt, if you could ask “Heartlight” or any of the other horses blessed by Parke's care over the past 45 years.

Keep smilin', keep shinin'

Knowing you can always count on me.

'Cause I tell you that's what friends are for

For good times and bad times

I'll be on your side forever more.

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Brilliant from @FrankieDettori! Mimikyu lands the Group 2 Coral Park Hill Fillies' Stakes at @DoncasterRaces for the Gosdens! pic.twitter.com/LfnpziACUC

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) September 8, 2022

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“He's done nothing at home, he's worked gently on the bridle with another horse and wasn't wound up in any way for the race,” explained trainer John Gosden. “He was so sensible in the proceedings beforehand and in the race he did it all very professionally. He's not been on the grass for seven weeks, he's just been on the all-weather. Martin [Harley] gave him a lovely ride and I'm overjoyed. James Wigan bought the mare for Mr Strawbridge at the Rothschild dispersal and she was an exceptionally talented Group 1 winner that Roger [Charlton] trained. We'll go a step at a time and won't go jumping in the deep end. I think he'll be very comfortable over a mile, we'll go to a novice and then see where we go from there.”

Epictetus is the fifth foal and winner for G1 Pretty Polly S. heroine Thistle Bird (GB) (Selkirk), herself a half-sister to dual Group 3-winning G1 Cantala S. second McCreery (GB) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}) out of the dual stakes-winning G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest third Dolma (Fr) (Marchand de Sable). Thistle Bird was a 750,000gns purchase, carrying the winner, at Tattersalls' 2019 December Mares fixture and has also produced Listed Radley S. victrix and G3 Fred Darling S. runner-up Jumbly (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}) and a yearling colt by Lope De Vega (Ire). The May-foaled bay's stakes-placed third dam Young Manila (Manila) is kin to a trio of stakes performers headed by MGSW G2 Prix de Royallieu victrix Fabulous Hostess (Fabulous Dancer).

1st-Newmarket, £15,000, Mdn, 7-8, 2yo, c/g, 7fT, 1:24.28, g/f.
EPICTETUS (IRE), c, 2, by Kingman (GB)
1st Dam: Thistle Bird (GB) (Hwt. Older Mare-Ire at 9.5-11f, G1SW-Ire, MGSW & G1SP-Eng, $577,634), by Selkirk
2nd Dam: Dolma (Fr), by Marchand de Sable
3rd Dam: Young Manila, by Manila
1ST-TIME STARTER. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, £8,100. O/B-George Strawbridge (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

Nice performance – Epictetus (11-1), a son of Kingman who is a half-brother to the useful Jumbly, travels powerfully and makes a winning debut in the opener on day two of the July Festival @NewmarketRace for the Gosdens and Martin Harley pic.twitter.com/d7IbHYKdoS

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) July 8, 2022

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“She's done well to pick up again after that,” reflected rider Rab Havlin. “The gap was there and my filly was going well. We just got tight, but credit to the filly as she organised herself and picked up. We always thought she was a proper filly last year and she did it today. She doesn't show a great deal at home and never has, but on the track she's been really progressive and looks like a Group 1 filly. I'd say we'd probably aim her a bit higher than the [G2] Lillie Langtry, that's an obvious race to consider at Goodwood, but I'd imagine connections will want to go for a Group 1.”

There was a sting in the tail for Havlin, who picked up a five-day suspension for being the one deemed to have initiated his own interference. “Sometimes horses will lean off the rail and I thought I gave Jim [Crowley on Eshaada] half a furlong to see if he was going to go back on,” he explained. “The gap was there and my filly was going well, but we just got tight. Normally, if it opens straight away, you would just wait as they can roll on and off the rail. I felt he was off the rail for long enough and his filly looked as if she was leaning into the Haggas filly [Sea La Rose], so I thought I was going to take the opportunity as I was going well. When I got halfway there it got tight.”

Free Wind, full-sister to a yearling colt, is the second of four foals and one of two scorers for MSW G3 Dance Design S. third Alive Alive Oh (GB) (Duke of Marmalade {Ire}), herself half to G3 Fukushima Kinen and G3 Tanabata Sho victor Crescendo Love (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}). Alive Alive Oh is also kin to the dam of the dual stakes-placed Soldier's Minute (GB) (Raven's Pass). The April-foaled bay's second dam Higher Love (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), who was runner-up in the Listed Cheshire Oaks, is out of Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial runner-up Dollar Bird (Ire) (Kris {GB}), herself a half-sister to GSW sire Amfortas (Ire) (Caerleon) and to the dam of G1 1000 Guineas heroine Virginia Waters (Kingmambo) and G1SP sires Chevalier (Ire) (Danehill) and Alexander of Hales (Danehill).

Saturday, Haydock, Britain
BET365 LANCASHIRE OAKS-G2, £115,000, Haydock, 7-2, 3yo/up, f, 11f 175yT, 2:37.89, sf.
1–FREE WIND (IRE), 133, f, 4, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Alive Alive Oh (GB) (SW & GSP-Ire), by Duke of Marmalade (Ire)
2nd Dam: Higher Love (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
3rd Dam: Dollar Bird (Ire), by Kris (GB)
(325,000gns Ylg '19 TATOCT). O-George Strawbridge; B-Mrs Sue Ann Foley (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden; J-Robert Havlin. £65,217. Lifetime Record: GSW-Fr, 7-5-1-0, $238,855. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Sea La Rosa (Ire), 133, f, 4, Sea The Stars (Ire)–Soho Rose (Ire), by Hernando (Fr). (€200,000 Ylg '19 ARAUG). O-Sunderland Holding Inc; B-G&B Partnership (IRE); T-William Haggas. £24,725.
3–Eshaada (GB), 133, f, 4, Muhaarar (GB)–Muhawalah (Ire), by Nayef. O/B-Shadwell Estate Company Ltd (GB); T-Roger Varian. £12,374.
Margins: 2 1/4, NK, 2 1/4. Odds: 2.75, 4.00, 2.75.
Also Ran: Believe In Love (Ire), Stay Alert (GB), Nell Quickly (Ire), Kawida (GB). Scratched: Invite (Ire). Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

Lancashire Oaks (G2)
2370m, 115.000 GBP, for 3yo+ mares
Haydock Park

Free Wind (IRE)
(4M Galileo – Alive Alive Oh, by Duke Of Marmalade)
J :Robert Havlin
T :John & Thady Gosden
O : George Strawbridge
B :Mrs Sue Ann Foley
@RacingTVpic.twitter.com/25wrqU91OU

— (@WorldRacing1) July 2, 2022

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