Lady O’Reilly Remembered as Arqana Returns to Action

DEAUVILLE, France–First went the Irish, then the French. For some, it was a woeful weekend in the sporting world outside horseracing as the Rugby World Cup quarter finals left only England standing among the European nations to go forward to the next round at the Stade de France. 

Plenty of sales folk huddled around the screen at Deauville racecourse on Sunday evening to see the home team's dreams shattered, but by Monday morning the focus was fully back on the horses and the next week of yearling action ahead. 

Before the rugby started, those present at Arqana had gathered in remembrance of Lady Chryss O'Reilly, who died only days after attending the August Sale. Frederique de Chambure, Henri Bozo, Marina Marinopoulos, Nicolas Clement and Aliette Forien all spoke movingly of their longstanding friendship with the owner-breeder and in the bright sunshine of Monday morning, it was hard not to feel that an extra shadow had been cast over Yard B on the sales grounds. The Haras de la Louviere yearlings were there as usual, in their traditional spot, but for the first time their breeder is not present. 

Orchestrating the viewings and juggling cards like the dab hand that he is, Mick O'Dwyer paused for a moment to reflect on his long association with Lady O'Reilly's draft.

“I've been doing this now for 17 years,” he said. “It's business as usual in a way, but she is very much missed. Everybody loved her.”

Sixteen yearlings are being presented by Haras de la Louviere this week, including a filly from the final crop of Le Havre (Ire) whose first three dams were all bred by Lady O'Reilly. As lot 473, she comes through later in the week, on Thursday, and is a daughter of Hailstorm (GB), a treble winner and herself a daughter of Verglas (Ire), winner of the G2 Coventry S. in the familiar black-and-white hoops.

With Ecurie des Monceaux, Lady O'Reilly's Skymarc Farm bred Vespertilio (Fr) (Nigh Of Thunder {Ire}), who won the G2 Debutante S. just a few days before her co-breeder's passing. That filly's half-brother by Camelot (GB) will be one of the earliest horses into the ring on Tuesday when presented by Monceaux as lot 14.

We also cannot mention the Monceaux draft without a reminder that lot 59 is a full-brother to Sottsass (Fr). He was bred by the farm from the celebrated mare Starlet's Sister (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and is offered alongside three yearlings in the draft from the first crop of his Arc-winning brother.

Arqana's October Sale usually plays second fiddle to its flashier August cousin but October is challenging for bragging rights this year as the sale from which Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) graduated two years ago, also from Monceaux. August of course played its trump card a little later with Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}). Only on Sunday, Iresine (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) gave another reminder of why it is worth seeing out the week and trying to unearth a bargain in the later parts of the sale. To his G1 Prix Ganay victory in the spring he added the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris, and he is now taking aim at Equinox (Jpn) and Liberty Island (Jpn) in the Japan Cup. At his best yet at the age of six, Iresine was picked up as a yearling at the Arqana October Sale for €6,000 and his earnings, including those vital French owners' premiums, are now in excess of €1,000,000.

As the season rolls on, more and more new stallions are being announced for 2024. France in particular looks set to benefit from a bumper new crop. We already know that Ace Impact is off to Haras de Beaumont, which will doubtless be inundated with visitors once breeders descend on Deauville for the breeding stock sale in early December. Jean-Claude Rouget's top three-year-old of the previous season, the Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse winner Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), joins Siyouni (Fr) and Zarak (Fr) at the Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval.

While doing the yearling rounds on Monday morning, Fabrice Chappet said that he was looking forward to one last outing with his stable star Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita before he takes up residence at Haras d'Etreham, while Lusail (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) has just been announced as the latest recruit to Al Shaqab's Haras de Bouquetot. In recent months, plenty have made reference to the need for France to plug the gaps left by the likes of Le Havre and Wootton Bassett (GB). In the case of the latter, the Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded (Ire) will be among an increasing number of a number of sons of Wootton Bassett attempting to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious father. He has his first runners next year, and 37 members of his first crop are up for grabs in Deauville this week.

Wooded, who is another Haras de Bouquetot stallion, was given an extra boost on the pedigree side this year courtesy of his brother Bucanero Fuerte (GB), winner of the G1 Phoenix S. and G2 Railway S. during a productive season. 

“That's what we are looking for now in France,” says Al Shaqab's Benoit Jeffroy. “Wootton Bassett is gone and Siyouni is getting to an age where he hasn't got another 10 years in front of him, so we are looking for the new boys.

“Wooded has a proper chance. He has some good-looking stock. They have the depth and they can move. He had the speed, so let's hope he can pass it on.”

At the same time as Wooded retired, Al Shaqab also took charge of a stallion prospect with a slightly different profile in Robert Ng's Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who was a star for Ken Condon's stable over four seasons. His major wins included the Irish 2,000 Guineas, followed the next year by the G1 Prix Jaques Le Marois and G2 Minstrel S., and he returned to win the latter for a second time at five.

“We are very  happy to be able to stand a horse like Romanised,” said Jeffroy. “We can only thank Mr Ng and Rupert Pritchard-Gordon for entrusting him to us and to France. Actually his stock have sold really well, because he only stands for €7,000, so the return on investment has been good for the breeders so far. It's hard to find a Guineas winner and a Jacques Le Marois winner, and he has been very well received.

“We all know that we have to go through a number of stallions to find horses that will be the next good ones, the improvers, so we keep dreaming now.”

Romanised's sole August Sale yearling, a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Boscaccio (Fr), was paid rather a compliment when bought by Edouard de Rothschild's Haras de Meautry for €170,000, and he had another four sold through the V.2 Sale for €87,000, €65,000, €55,000 and €27,000. He looks a stallion to keep an eye on and has another 37 slated to sell this week.

Frankel (GB) was all the rage, as usual, during Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, where one of his sons became the most expensive yearling sold in Europe this year. There is just one Frankel on offer this week in Deauville and unsurprisingly he is bred in the purple. Catalogued as lot 95 from La Motteraye Consignment, the colt is a half-brother to the dual Grade I winner A Raving Beauty (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}).

Another with the potential to star towards the end of Tuesday's session is lot 210, a filly from the first crop of Ghaiyyath (Ire) whose brother New Mandate (Ire), by another Dubawi-line stallion in New Bay (GB) is a group winner in England and Australia, while further generations of the family include dual French Classic victrix Avenir Certain (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and successful young sire Mehmas (Ire).

Business gets underway at 11am on Tuesday, while the following three days all begin at 2pm before a final 11am session again on Saturday.

 

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Seven Days: Super Saturday for Beckett and Chan

It's the time of year which most trainers must dread as they juggle spending time in their yards and at the races with attending yearling sales here, there and everywhere. One who will doubtless be patrolling the sales grounds of Doncaster and Baden-Baden this week with an extra pep in his step is Ralph Beckett. Marc Chan, one of Beckett's principal owners, had four runners in the past week and all four won. Even more remarkably, three of those victories came in stakes contests on the same day at three different tracks. 

Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) has developed into one of the most dependable sprinter-milers in Europe, and he added Saturday's G2 City of York S. to his fine record, which includes victory in that same race last year, along with Group 1 strikes in the QIPCO British Champions Sprint and the Qatar Prix de la Foret. The latter is naturally on his radar for later this season, along with the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and possibly the G1 Hong Kong Mile.

The same afternoon, Angel Bleu (Fr) provided another fine example of both the precocity and durability of the stock of his sire Dark Angel (Ire), as outlined in yesterday's feature by John Berry, when winning the G2 Celebration Mile, to add to his three group wins as a juvenile, including the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and G1 Criterium International. 

To cap a sensational afternoon for the Beckett-Chan team, another former Group 1 winner, Lezoo (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}), who is owned in partnership with Andrew Rosen, won Newmarket's Listed Hopeful S., her first success since claiming last year's Cheveley Park S. next door on the Rowley Mile.

While Kinross was a private in-training purchase from his breeder Julian Richmond-Watson, the other two are both Arqana graduates, as is Chan's fourth winner, the juvenile Going The Distance (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who won a Ffos Las novice race last Thursday and looks one to follow as the autumn comes on. All were bought for the owner by his racing manager Jamie McCalmont.

Beckett is currently in fourth place on the British trainers' table and he has plenty of ammunition in reserve to see him through some of the season's key contests yet to come, including Westover (GB), Remarquee (GB), Prosperous Voyage (Ire), and Juddmonte's exciting juvenile Task Force (GB), who remains unbeaten after his listed victory at Ripon on Monday and has some fancy entries.

Brothers and Sisters

It has also been a successful spell for the band of brothers that makes up the Bronte Collection, a gang of friends and associates of Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics fame. Four juvenile winners over the last fortnight have included the G3 Tattersalls Acomb S. winner Indian Run (Ire) (Sioux Nation) at Parkin's local track, York. The colt is yet another to advertise the considerable talents of his trainer Eve Johnson Houghton, who earlier this season landed the Woodcote S. with Bobsleigh (Ire) (Elzaam {Aus}).

Indian Run also provided a boost for the Tattersalls Somerville Sale, one of the new kids on the block as far as yearling sales are concerned, but one that is fast gaining traction. Joe Foley, the buyer and manager for both Parkin and the Bronte Collection, signed for the Ciaran McGrath-bred Indian Run for £75,000, and he will have taken equal delight in two other Bronte winners in recent weeks. Hot Front (Ire) and Government Call (Ire) were both bred by Foley's Ballyhane Stud and are by first-season sire Soldier's Call (GB), who raced so successfully in the Clipper Logistics colours. 

Johnson Houghton has nominated the G1 Dewhurst S. as Indian Run's major end-of-season target. It is a race her stable last won 21 years ago with Tout Seul (Ire) (Ali-Royal {Ire}), trained by her father Fulke.

Deauville, Over and Out

British and Irish raiders in France this year have found it harder to return with the spoils than it has been in recent years, but the final weekend of Deauville's summer meeting saw British-based trainers plunder all three group races.

France has been a particularly happy hunting ground for Simon and Ed Crisford in 2023 and, after their breakthrough Group 1 success the previous weekend with Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) in the Sumbe Prix Morny, they returned to take the G3 Prix Quincey with Poker Face (Ire), another member of the Fastnet Rock (Aus)-Galileo (Ire) nick club, and who had also won the Listed Pomfret S. in July for owner Edward Ware. The four-year-old's full-sister will be offered by breeder Marlhill House Stud during Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Mill Stream (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}), trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam for former trainer Peter Harris, added the G3 Prix de Meautry to his previous win in the Listed Prix Moonlight Cloud at the same track and has a Group 1 engagement on British Champions Day. He is another to have provided an update for a yearling heading to the sales. His Mehmas (Ire) half-brother is in the draft of breeder Redpender Stud for Book 1 at Tattersalls.

Completing a group-race double for Gleneagles was Jack Darcy (Ire), winner of the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville for another father-and-son team, Paul and Oliver Cole. A 24,000gns Book 3 purchase, Jack Darcy has now won at two (on debut), three and four, and he has had a busy summer, which has included finishing runner-up to Hamish (GB) in the G3 Glorious S. at Goodwood. Paul Cole had previously won the Grand Prix de Deauville on five occasions between 1988 and 1999, including twice with the St Leger winner Snurge (Ire).

A Legendary Leger?

It is almost tempting fate to say it, but this year's St Leger is shaping up to be an intriguing contest. We could be treated to the sight of last week's G2 Great Voltigeur S. winner Continuous (Jpn) attempting to become the first British Classic winner for his late Shadai sire Heart's Cry (Jpn) and the seventh St Leger winner for Aidan O'Brien. 

He shares the top of the betting market with Gregory (GB), who will be attempting the same breakthrough Classic win for his own Derby-winning sire Golden Horn (GB) and for owner Wathnan Racing, the coming force on the European scene.

Then of course there's Desert Hero (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), owned by the King and Queen and already a star of Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood. A victory for him on Town Moor would make him the first royal winner of Britain's oldest Classic since Dunfermline (GB) in 1977.

Another to hold an entry is the G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Warm Heart (Ire), who led home a poignant 1-2-3 for her late sire Galileo (Ire) on the Knavesmire last week. It was in the St Leger that Galileo first dropped a major hint as to his prepotency when members of his first crop, Sixties Icon (GB), The Last Drop (Ire) and Red Rocks (Ire), filled the first three places in 2006. One last hurrah, maybe? Either way, let's hope the grand old St Leger ends up with a field that a race of its history and standing deserves.

Fond Farewells

It has been a time of sad farewells for the racing and breeding industry. There was widespread dismay at the sudden death of Lady Chryss O'Reilly last week so soon after she had been in Deauville with her draft of yearlings. 

John Osborne, former CEO of the Irish National Stud (INS), added his voice to the many tributes paid to the hugely successful owner-breeder, whom he had come to know well during her time as Chair of the INS, where her Coventry S. winner Verglas (Ire) stood for the majority of his stallion career.

He said, “Chryss's knowledge of pedigrees was unsurpassed and she had boundless energy and enthusiasm for matings and then monitoring the development of the subsequent foals. She enjoyed great success at the highest level and we were lucky to be in Longchamp for her Pouliches winner Bluemamba, which was celebrated with customary gusto. 

“It was a privilege to know her and it is such a shame she has been taken so soon, at her favourite time of year.”

Lady O'Reilly's passing followed that of another grand dame of the French turf, Countess Marguerite de Tarragon of Haras de Maulepaire, who died at the age of 92 on August 16. The daughter of famed breeders Jean and Elisabeth Couturié, she was born at Haras du Mesnil and took over its sister stud, Maulepaire, on her marriage to Count Bertrand de Tarragon. Her nephew Henri Devin owns and runs Haras du Mesnil with his wife Antonia, and their son Henri-Francois Devin trains in Chantilly.

Maulepaire has been the birthplace of plenty of notable Flat and National Hunt horses, including La Bague Au Roi (Fr) and Dunaden (Fr). The countess had seen her own colours carried to glory in the days immediately prior to her death by her homebred Hoola Hoop (Fr) at Le Lion d'Angers.

“Hoola Hoop will have given her great pleasure. Thanks to Gaby Leenders and team for this ultimate gift,” Pierric Rouxel, manager of Maulepaire, told France Sire.

Rouxel was one of many who had benefited from the countess's “life's work”, alongside Thoroughbred breeding, of providing a haven and upbringing to children who had had a difficult start in life.

He added, “For more than 50 years, this house has welcomed many children tossed about by life, where operating within a family has allowed them to rebuild themselves. 

“Deprived of motherhood herself, she naturally knew how to open wide her wings for all the chicks that had fallen from the nest, but also for the many trainees at the stud farm, for her countless nephews and nieces, for all those who, one day or another, benefited from her inexhaustible affection. Her trust she gave without hesitation because she knew very well how to judge horses, especially young foals, but also humans.”

Hanagan the Humble Hero

Champions come in all shapes and sizes, but it would be hard to find a more modest and self-effacing owner of that title than Paul Hanagan.

The former dual champion jockey and champion apprentice was given a proper send-off at York on Friday after announcing his intention to retire on the opening day of the Ebor meeting. 

There was to be no fairytale ending for the man who, in his pomp, rode 168 and 142 winners in the seasons in which he secured his championships in 2010 and 2011, and which led to him becoming the retained rider for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum for the following five years.

Hanagan has ridden just 10 winners this year, and he candidly admitted that he has not ridden with the same confidence since a fall two years ago which broke his back in three places and left him in considerable pain. One also sensed that he still cannot believe his luck in getting to the top from humble beginnings.

“I was two-time champion jockey as a kid from Warrington without a lot of racing experience, so I keep telling kids it can be done,” he said at York last Wednesday.

“The fall a couple of years ago knocked me, just fitness-wise, getting to that level again [has been hard] and I just thought of all the meetings to [retire], maybe it's here, where I've had a lot of success.”

Hanagan was rightly given a guard of honour by his fellow jockeys as he left the weighing-room for his final ride on Friday. He may not have the flamboyance of Frankie Dettori, who is set to bow out later this year (in case you hadn't heard), but Hanagan did things his way to the last, and he should be remembered not just for his great achievements in the saddle, but also for his endearing humility. He will be missed.

Cunha's Tremendous Machine

Silver Sword (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) may not be in quite the same league as Secretariat, but he does carry the same blue-and-white silks made famous by Penny Chenery's great Triple Crown winner, and for his trainer Dylan Cunha he has undoubtedly been a tremendous flag-bearer.

The South African-born trainer only joined the British ranks last year, and he has teamed up successfully with another ex-pat from his home country, jockey Greg Cheyne, for some notable success on the track this year for his small Newmarket stable. 

Silver Sword, an 11,000gns yearling purchase, has been to the forefront of this good run, though admittedly his recent success did not look likely when he blotted his copybook by refusing to race on his first two starts last year. He has more than atoned, however, and the three-year-old now has a trio of wins to his name, including in a £100,000 heritage handicap at York on Friday, as well as a runner-up finish at Epsom on Derby day.

Silver Sword runs for Martians Racing in colours that were auctioned by the BHA last September for £5,500 and are identical to those registered in America and borne by one of the most celebrated horses of all time. Cunha has also had a blue-and-white bridle made for Silver Sword to further replicate Secretariat's style.

 

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