Gregory Favourite as Nine Remain in St Leger

Nine horses have stood their ground for the Betfred St Leger, which takes place at Doncaster on Saturday.

While much attention will focus on the presence of a royal runner, Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who bids to give King Charles III his first Classic success 46 years after Dunfermline (GB) won the St Leger for his late mother, there is also the matter of Frankie Dettori's last ride in a British Classic.

The Italian, who is set to retire from race-riding at the end of the year, will renew his partnership with race-favourite Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}), on whom he won the G2 Queen's Vase at Royal Ascot. Owned by Wathnan Racing, the colt is one of three potential runners for John and Thady Gosden, along with Qatar Racing's Middle Earth (GB) (Roaring Lion) and Juddmonte's contender Arrest (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Aidan O'Brien has four remaining entries, led by the G2 Great Voltigeur winner Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), who could be joined by Tower Of London (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Alexandropoulis (Ire) and Denmark (Ire). The last two named are sons of Camelot (GB), who narrowly failed in his Triple Crown bid in 2012 when beaten in the St Leger by Godolphin's Encke (GB).

This time around Godolphin has just one potential runner, Chesspiece (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who is trained by Simon and Ed Crisford and was runner-up to Desert Hero in the G3 Gordon S. at Goodwood. 

The King and Queen's runner completed a gallop in Newmarket on Tuesday, with trainer William Haggas reporting that Desert Hero worked well.

“He was impressive at Goodwood with cut in the ground and he won on top of the ground at Royal Ascot, so I don't think that bothers him too much,” Haggas told Sky Sports Racing. 

“Obviously the softer it is the more accent it puts on stamina and he may not be a strong stayer at a mile and six and a half [furlongs], but we'll see. I think he will.”

He added of Desert Hero's royal connections, “Everyone who is involved in horse racing in any shape or form would like to win a Classic, whether they breed it, own it, train it, ride it or look after it. The Classic is everyone's dream, so they're no different to everyone else.”

Haggas continued, “There doesn't look to be too many that shouldn't be there. John has got the strongest hand with Gregory, Middle Earth and Arrest, and Aidan's horse [Continuous] was very impressive in the Voltigeur.

“I suppose Gregory and Continuous are the two, but they're the front two in the market. Chesspiece is very solid and we're pretty solid too, so I think it's a good renewal and it will be a good, fun race.”

Oisin Murphy will ride the Melrose H. winner Middle Earth and was also aboard his late sire Roaring Lion for all four of his Group 1 wins. Speaking on Sky Sports Racing, Murphy said, “He has to step up on his Melrose victory, but the form has been franked.

“Sheikh Fahad has won the race before with Simple Verse, so hopefully he'll be bang there. It doesn't look like it's going to be a very big field, but there's some good horses in there.

“Time will tell, but I think he's a horse with the right profile and I'd be very excited about his future in general anyway.”

 

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Haggas Has Leger Double in His Sights 

In 2017 and 2018, Aidan O'Brien won both the St Leger and Irish St Leger, first with Capri (Ire) and Order Of St George (Ire), and the following year with Kew Gardens (Ire) and Flag Of Honour (Ire). Given the dominance of both the trainer and his not-so-secret weapon Galileo (Ire), it has perhaps passed beyond being remarkable that all four of those horses are by the late former champion sire, but it is worth noting nonetheless.

This year, William Haggas will attempt to pull off that same staying Classic double. We'll let it pass that the Irish St Leger has not really been a Classic since 1983 when it was opened up to older horses. It remains an important and prestigious race with a roll of honour populated by some truly special names, including the four-time winner Vinnie Roe (Ire), Ireland's first Melbourne Cup hero Vintage Crop (GB), the brilliant Yeats (Ire), and the subsequent important National Hunt sires Turgeon and Kayf Tara (GB).

The Haggas duo of Hamish (GB) (Motivator {GB}) and Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) will launch respective attacks on the Curragh and Doncaster six days apart. For Hamish it is something of a revenge mission, as he was less than a length behind last year's champion stayer Kyprios (Ire) when second in last year's Irish St Leger. Since that day, the determined and quirky little horse has added another four Group 3 wins to his burgeoning record, including three on the bounce this season. 

Now seven, Hamish's popularity is growing, and he is of special importance to the Haggas family, having been bred by the trainer's 92-year-old father, Brian, in whose colours he races. Hamish is ridden each day by the trainer's wife, Maureen, with former National Hunt jockey Andrew Tinkler stepping in for most of his work mornings. 

Other members of the gelding's family have also been successful for the stable. Hamish's dam, the dual winner Tweed (GB) (Sakhee), is a half-sister to the G3 St Simon S. winner Beaten Up (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}), who later won the G1 Doomben Cup for Chris Waller, as well as Group 3 and dual Listed winner Harris Tweed (GB) (Hernando {Fr}), and Vow (GB) (Motivator {GB}), who won the Lingfield Oaks Trial before finishing fourth in the Oaks. The Scottish theme in the naming is derived from Haggas snr's former ownership of the Kenneth Mackenzie mill in Stornoway, which is the oldest producer of the famed Harris Tweed cloth in the Outer Hebrides.

A fearless and accomplished horsewoman, Maureen Haggas has worked out that the path of least resistance is key to getting the best out of Hamish. She clearly dotes on him, all the while putting up with his foibles. With nine wins from 17 starts and more than £600,000 in earnings, Hamish can by now be forgiven the odd flash of recalcitrance. After all, what happens on the track is what matters most, and there, once he has deigned to enter the stalls, he is all heart.

“I've ridden him since he was a three-year-old when he was a bit tricky and didn't really want to go anywhere or do anything,” Maureen recalls. “They are all funny about the stalls, the whole family. The first time he ran he went to Redcar and he wouldn't go in, so we always have someone with him at the stalls.”

That said, he still managed to win three times as a three-year-old, breaking his maiden at Windsor over 1m2f before stepping up to 1m6f to score twice at his owner's and trainer's beloved York. Making just one start in the delayed season of 2020, when fourth in the G2 Hardwicke S., Hamish then suffered a tendon injury which kept him off the track for more than a year. When he returned to win the G3 September S. on his first run after a 442-day hiatus, he posted what now looks in hindsight a terrific piece of form, as behind him that day was the subsequent dual Group 1 winner Hukum (GB).

“He's an interesting character,” Maureen continues. “You've got to pretty much let him do his own thing most of the time. You could fight with him from the minute you went in to him to the minute you put him away, if you were that way inclined. But as long as he goes out, does his work and comes home, then I'd rather leave him be and let him do his own thing. It's just keeping him happy, really. He's seven now, so he knows all about it.”

She adds, “He never gets tired, he's a really natural athlete, which not every horse is.  He has a good, easy gait, and it's just easy for him.

“The ground is crucial. He sat all summer last year and did nothing, but we had no option. We've been a bit luckier this year, but it really is important that he has a bit of cut in the ground.”

Haggas's St Leger candidate, Desert Hero, is a horse who has already put him in the good books by providing his owners, the King and Queen, with a first Royal Ascot winner. Then, like Hamish, he struck at Group 3 level at Glorious Goodwood to win the Gordon S. and put himself firmly in the picture for the final Classic of the season.

The last time there was a royal winner of the St Leger was in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year of 1977, when Her Majesty's filly Dunfermline (GB) followed up on her victory in the Oaks. A link to the present day is provided by the fact that Desert Hero is ridden at home by Luke Carson, the grandson of Dunfermline's jockey Willie Carson. 

“What can you say? It's what dreams are made of, that you have a runner for the King at Royal Ascot,” says Carson jnr.

“We went to Ascot quietly confident and he was an absolute diamond. He put his head down. He tried really hard. You couldn't ask for any more.”

Haggas would obviously like to ask for more, and a win in the oldest Classic in his home county of Yorkshire might be just the ticket in the season following the retirement of former stable star Baaeed (GB), who, like Desert Hero, is a son of Sea The Stars. Desert Hero won twice last year and was third to Silver Knott in the G3 Solario S., but he gave his trainer pause for thought earlier this year after not wintering particularly well.

“He had a poor winter and a moderate spring,” Haggas notes. “We ran him at Newbury to try to goad him into action because we weren't getting anywhere, and he ran okay at Newbury actually. 

“Ever since then he has started to thrive. We hoped that the handicap at Ascot might be the right race for him and he did very well to win. They went very fast, and it may have flattered the horses that came from the back, but all the horses in the front at the end came from the back at the top of the straight. Then I thought it was a good win at Goodwood.”

And as the first anniversary of the Queen's death approaches, a week before the St Leger, a major victory for the Royal Studs would be welcomed by plenty in the racing world.

Haggas adds, “I think it's really important for everyone, and it's especially important for the King and the Queen. And the fact that we're training Desert Hero is just lucky for us because it's important that they have some success. Obviously the late Queen bred Desert Hero, so that's poignant in itself, and now they're taking up the mantle with gusto and enjoying every minute.”

 

 

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Seven Days: Succession

Last week this column was led by Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Now, for the same owner/breeder, Shadwell, it is the turn of Al Husn (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

It was quite the boost for Newcastle's all-weather G3 Hoping Fillies' S. that both the winner Al Husn and runner-up Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) went on to win a Group 1 on the turf on their next start. With Nashwa having won the G1 Falmouth S. in emphatic fashion, she reopposed Al Husn in attempting to defend her crown in the G1 Nassau S., eventually finishing third, just half a length behind Above The Curve (American Pharaoh), who was the same distance behind Shadwell's winner.

Al Husn thus became the fourth individual Group 1 winner for Shadwell this season following Hukum, Mostahdaf (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Anmaat (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}), and the seventh since Sheikha Hissa took over at the head of the operation from her late father. This year there have also been Group 2 wins for Alfaila (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), Mutasaabeq (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Israr (GB) (Muhaarar {GB}).

When Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum died in March 2021 and Shadwell subsequently significantly reduced its stock, it would have been easy to assume that the operation would gradually wind down. Happily, the reverse appears to be true, and the streamlining, which would undoubtedly have been painful, is now paying dividends. 

Shadwell's elite troops have marched to glory in impressive fashion, with the old housemates in their Newmarket assistant trainer days, Owen Burrows and Roger Varian, supplying the latest Group 1 winners, while William Haggas, John and Thady Gosden, and Charlie Hills have all played their parts. A select amount of restocking took place at last year's yearling and foal sales, with Angus Gold signing for 10 fillies at Books 1 and 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, while another six colts and one filly were recruited from the December Foal Sale. A group of young trainers were added to the roster, with Harry Eustace, Kevin Philippart de Foy and George Boughey each receiving four Shadwell horses this year.

And then there are the stallions, present and future. The highest-rated turf horse in the world last year, Baaeed (GB), joined the Nunnery Stud while Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) went to Derrinstown. Whether Hukum eventually stands on the same roster as his brother remains to be seen, but the dual Group 2 winner Mutasaabeq is from the same family and will deserve a place at stud, as does Anmaat, while the G1 Prince of Wales's S. winner Mostahdaf is a hugely enticing prospect. 

More pleasing still for racing fans is that, at four, Al Husn, Israr and Alfaila are the youngest of the horses mentioned here. We are getting the chance to see these bigger names compete, and improve, over several seasons. And that, after all, is what it's all about. 

A Classic for the King?

Similar concerns were raised as to the continuation of the Royal Studs following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last September. In the immediate aftermath of her passing there was a day's delay to the St Leger, a race the Queen had won in her Silver Jubilee year of 1977 with Dunfermline (GB). 

There could be no finer tribute to the Queen's beloved breeding operation than a major success close to her anniversary in this year's race, and in the Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood winner Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), King Charles and Queen Camilla have a noteworthy potential contender. The William Haggas-trained colt has now won four of his six starts, most importantly last week's G3 Gordon S. While Haggas has trained one of Sea The Stars's faster runners in Baaeed, there looks to be little doubt that Desert Hero will see out the Leger trip. His unraced dam Desert Breeze (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) was gifted to the Queen by Sheikh Mohammed, as was her full-brother, Dartmouth (GB), winner of the G2 Yorkshire Cup and G2 Hardwicke S. among his four Pattern wins. Another of the mare's siblings, Manatee (GB) (Manduro {Ger}), won the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly, while the family's middle-distance and staying record was further enhanced by the Listed success over almost two miles of another half-sister, Gaterie (Dubai Destination).

Desert Hero may be arguably the most important budding stayer at Haggas's Somerville Lodge, but there is clearly a big soft spot for Hamish (GB) (Motivator {GB}), who is ridden daily by the trainer's wife Maureen and was bred by his father Brian. 

Hamish, who beat Hukum in the G3 September S. of 2021, is unbeaten this season in three Group 3 contests and could yet aim to give his stable a St Leger double if the plan to head to the Irish Champions Weekend comes to fruition. Now seven, he's been a slow burn, but he is exactly the type of horse the racing public loves to latch on to. Three of Hamish's six wins have come at York, the track that Haggas pere et fils would consider to be their local, despite the fact the horse is trained in Newmarket. More remarkably, six of Hamish's nine wins have been in Group 3 contests. Don't rule him out of striking at a higher level eventually. 

William Haggas signed for Hamish's granddam, the unpromisingly-named Frog (GB) (Akarad {Fr}), at the Tattersalls Houghton Sale of 1994 for 16,000gns, and she went into training with his former boss, Sir Mark Prescott, winning five of her 11 starts. Her greater achievement has been as a broodmare, however. 

Frog's eight winning offspring are led by the G1 Doomben Cup winner Beaten Up (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}), while his half-brother, Harris Tweed (GB) (Hernando {Fr}), who was named after Haggas Sr's company, won the Listed March S. at Goodwood. Their sister Vow (GB), by Hamish's sire Motivator, was fourth in the Oaks after winning the Lingfield Oaks Trial. Her current three-year-old, Pledgeofallegiance (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), has won two staying handicaps this season for Prescott in the colours of Victorious Racing, but the majority of the family has raced, initially at least, for the Haggases. It is the dual winner Tweed (GB) (Sakhee), the dam of Hamish, who holds the bragging rights so far among Frog's broodmare daughters. 

Tom and Nathaniel

No jockey was in finer form at Goodwood than Tom Marquand, whose four winners were all at group level. The aforementioned Hamish and Desert Hero provided a brace of Group 3s, and he committed daylight robbery in the G1 Goodwood Cup aboard Lady Blyth's homebred Quickthorn (GB), later producing a similar front-running masterclass with Sumo Sam (GB) in stamina-sapping conditions in the G2 Lillie Langtry S. before racing was abandoned halfway through the final day of the meeting. 

Quickthorn and Sumo Sam provided two further examples of the prowess of Nathaniel (Ire) as a sire. While Enable (GB) never graced Goodwood with her presence, another of Nathaniel's top daughters, Lady Bowthorpe (GB), won the G1 Nassau S. of 2021. With Quickthorn becoming his seventh Group 1 winner on the Flat (Burning Victory (Fr) won the G1 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival), Nathaniel remains one of the unsung heroes of the British stallion ranks, and a friend to Flat and National Hunt breeders alike.

Ralph Beckett, who had a winning week all over the place, was Goodwood's leading trainer on countback. His three winners in Sussex included taking the G2 Lennox S. for a second time with Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and another for the King and Queen, for whom Beckett is the longest-standing trainer. The royal winner, Serried Ranks (GB) (Land Force {Ire}), is a seventh-generation descendant of one of the Royal Studs' foundation mares, Feola (GB) (Friar Marcus {GB}), who was runner-up in the 1,000 Guineas for King George VI and is the dam of the 1,000 Guineas and Dewhurst winner Hypericum (GB) (Hyperion {GB}). He thus belongs to the same distinguished family as Baaeed and Hukum.

Now a dual winner this season, the juvenile Serried Ranks has a full-sister catalogued as lot 95 in the Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale (good on Goffs UK for re-rebranding this sale thus, as everyone still calls it 'Donny' anyway). The filly is one of two yearlings to be offered in the sale by Highclere Stud on behalf of the Royal Studs.

Northern Lights

The battle to be champion sprinter of the year looks to be between two Yorkshire-trained speedballs in Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) and Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}). The latter's trainer, John Quinn, tied with Ralph Beckett at Goodwood on three winners, and he will no doubt have been most delighted to get his star mare back in the winner's enclosure following three placed efforts this season, including two runs at Royal Ascot.

The pair is unlikely to meet in the Nunthorpe, in which Highfield Princess will aim to defend her title, with Shaquille being pointed towards the Haydock Sprint Cup. It is encouraging, however, for Britain, and the north of the country in particular, to have two such high-class sprinters in the ranks.

In The Footsteps of Monsun

In Germany, it has been quite the season for Sea The Moon (Ger) and also for Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten, who is involved in different ways with both the G1 Deutsches Derby winner Fantastic Moon (Ger) and G1 Preis der Diana victrix Muskoka (Ger).

As highlighted by Sean Cronin in Monday's TDN, Lanwades resident Sea The Moon became the first stallion in 19 years, following his own damsire Monsun (Ger), to sire the Derby-Oaks double in the same year. And it is more than 100 years since the same sire (Ard Patrick in 1910) had the trifecta in the German Oaks as he did, with Kassada (Ger) and Sea The Lady (Fr) chasing home Muskoka.

Baumgarten bred Muskoka with his former wife Antje, and the filly is inbred 4×3 to Monsun's dam Mosella (Ger) (Surumu {Ger}). This family was also fairly recently given a Classic boost by Brametot (Ire) (Rajsaman {Fr}), the winner of the 2017 Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club, whose dam Morning Light (Ger) is a Law Society half-sister to Monsun and is the granddam of Muskoka.

Having sold Muskoka at the BBAG September Yearling Sale through Gestut Ohlerweiherhof for €80,000, Baumgarten later that day signed for Stauffenberg Bloodstock's Sea the Moon colt for €49,000. Subsequently named Fantastic Moon, he went on to be champion two-year-old in Germany before winning the Derby for Baumgarten's investor-driven Liberty Racing syndicate. 

Morning Mist, the dam of Muskoka, has a yearling filly by Reliable Man (GB) in this year's BBAG Yearling Sale as lot 175, again in the Ohlerweiherhof draft, while the Masar (Ire) half-sister to Fantastic Moon is in the Goffs Orby Sale, consigned by her breeders Philipp and Marion Stauffenberg as lot 373.

Anodin Strikes Gold

France held onto another one of its Group 1 prizes this season–just–when the six-year-old King Gold (Fr), the winner of a handicap four starts earlier in April, landed the Prix Maurice de Gheest on Sunday. It was not only a first Group 1 winner for his sire Anodin (Ire), the brother to the mighty mare Goldikova (Ire), but also for his trainer Nicolas Caullery. 

The latter, a kind of younger, Gallic Mick Jagger, would look equally at home headlining Glastonbury as he does picking up gongs in Deauville, but he was visibly moved by this notable milestone in his career provided by a horse he co-owns with King Gold's breeder Christiane Wingtans.

Anodin, who moved from Haras du Quesnay to Haras de la Haie Neuve ahead of the 2022 breeding season, had been leading the French sires' table even before King Gold's major success, and he has now surged farther clear of the reigning champion Siyouni (Fr), who has been represented by most of his major runners this season outside France. That list of course includes last week's G1 Sussex S. winner Paddington (GB) and Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Tahiyra (Ire), though Mqse De Sevgine (Fr) landed a blow at home in the previous weekend's G1 Prix Rothschild.

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Dettori Lodges Appeal On Nine-Day Ascot Ban

Frankie Dettori has appealed his nine-day suspension he earned for interference during the first day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday.

Aboard King Charles and Queen Camilla's Saga (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) for John and Thady Gosden in the Listed Wolferton S., he was found guilty of careless riding by the Ascot stewards. The suspension was due to run from July 4-12, and would result in Dettori missing a ride on Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Coral-Eclipse on July 8.

“I put my appeal in yesterday, so it's fingers crossed,” Dettori told talkSPORT. “I spoke to my lawyers and they told me to appeal.”

On his decision to retire this year the Italian added, “Every day I get asked. At the moment I'm retiring–Oct. 21 [in England] and then abroad. I'm sticking to it.

“Yesterday [winning the G1 Gold Cup] was unbelievable, the reception that I got. I just have to say thanks for all the support over the years and let's carry it on over another two days and have some fun.”

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