Tag: Lanwades Stud

Shadwell’s Baaeed Crowned Cartier Horse Of The Year

Shadwell homebred Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was named the Cartier Horse of the Year and Cartier Older Horse at the 32nd Cartier Racing Awards at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Wednesday evening.

The first Shadwell colourbearer to earn the Horse of the Year accolade, the William Haggas trainee added another four Group 1 victories to his pair earned in 2021, posting wins in the Lockinge S., Queen Anne S., Sussex S., and International S. in succession. His only loss in an 11-start career was a fourth-place finish in the G1 Champion S. on QIPCO British Champions Day in October. It was announced on Tuesday that the son of Aghareed (Kingmambo) would stand for £80,000 at Shadwell's Nunnery Stud in 2023.

Also shortlisted for Horse of the Year were G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}), quadruple Group 1-winning stayer Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and three-time Group 1-winning sprinter Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}). G1 Champion S. hero Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}) and dual Group 1-winning miler Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) were fellow nominees in the Cartier Older Horse category.

His Highness The Aga Khan's Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) was named the Cartier 3-Year-Old Colt on the back of victories in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, G1 Eclipse S., and G3 Prix de Guiche. Runner-up in Alpinista's Arc, the Jean-Claude Rouget trainee was also third in the G1 Irish Champion S. He follows Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge) (2000) and Dalakhani (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) (2003) in earning the 3-year-old colt award for the owner-breeder. This year marked the centennial of The Aga Khan's operation.

Already awarded the title of Cartier 2-Year-Old Filly, Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) became just the third filly to also take the Cartier 3-Year-Old Filly title. The Cheveley Park Stud homebred is in good company, however, as the earlier two winners are none other than Divine Proportions (Kingmambo) in 2005 and Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in 2016. The John and Thady Gosden-trained bay scored an imperious victory in Royal Ascot's G1 Coronation S., and, after a second-place finish in the G1 Falmouth S., she bounced back with a gritty win in Deauville's G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.

Kyprios proved unstoppable in the stayers' ranks throughout a six-start 4-year-old season, collecting victories from April through October. Trained by Aidan O'Brien for Moyglare Stud and the Coolmore partners, the chestnut's victory in the Listed Vintage Crop S. kickstarted a tour de force, quickly followed by the G3 Saval Beg Levmoss S. a month later. Stepped up to Group 1 company, the colt delivered in the Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup S., Irish St. Leger, and the Oct. 1 Prix du Cadran was a 20-length demolition job.

A hardy veteran of the handicap ranks, Highfield Princess proved a revelation when cut back to sprinting trips for owner-breeder John Fairley and trainer John Quinn. In action from February through November, the 5-year-old scored her first group win in the G2 Clipper Logistics S. at York in May, her fifth start of 2022. She earned her first top-drawer tally in the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest two starts later at Deauville on Aug. 7, and then added the G1 Nunthorpe S. returned to the Knavesmire and in the Curragh's G1 Flying Five S, in August and September, respectively. Connections opted to try for an international Group 1 four-timer at the Breeders' Cup, but her draw and a rough trip did her no favours, and she was a close fourth.

Part of a legion of Group 1-winning juveniles for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners in 2022, Blackbeard (Ire) (No Nay Never) got the nod as the Cartier 2-Year-Old Colt. He won six of his eight starts in a busy 2-year-old campaign which culminated in a two-length victory in the G1 Middle Park S. The Derrick Smith, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Westerberg silksbearer also captured the G1 Prix Morny, G2 Prix Robert Papin, G3 Marble Hill S. and the Listed First Flier S. Set for stallion duties at Coolmore Ireland in 2023, he was second by a nostril in the G2 Railway S. en route to championship honours.

Blackbeard's Cartier 2-Year-Old Filly counterpart is Lezoo (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}). The Ralph Beckett-trained filly, owned by Marc Chan and Andrew Rosen, was first or second in all five starts in 2022. After taking the Listed Empress Fillies S. in late June, she was only a half-length back of 'TDN Rising Star' Mawj (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) in the G2 Duchess Of Cambridge S. at Newmarket a month later, and returned to winning ways in the G3 Princess Margaret S. at Ascot on July 23. Lezoo defeated subsequent GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Meditate (Ire) No Nay Never) in the G1 Cheveley Park S. back at Newmarket to end her season on a high in September.

The recipient of the Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit is owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing of Lanwades Stud. Besides celebrating her homebred Alpinista winning the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Rausing was also the breeder of G1 St Leger hero Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), as well as recent Australian Group 1 winners Zaaki (GB) and Durston (GB). In addition, Rausing serves as an integral figure in the sport's governance and administration, while through her Alborada Trust, she has also provided vital funding for a host of causes in racing and wider society.

Laurent Feniou, Managing Director of Cartier UK, said, “We have been fortunate to witness another exceptional year of European horse racing and I am delighted to celebrate an outstanding group of horses at the 32nd Cartier Racing Awards. Baaeed lit up the season with four brilliant victories and he is a worthy recipient of the Cartier Horse of the Year award. We are also thrilled to honour Kirsten Rausing, who has given so much to the industry, with the Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit. It is a privilege for Cartier to be able to recognise these champions of the sport and my deepest congratulations go out to all of this year's winners. I would like to extend special thanks to Racing Post, The Daily Telegraph and Sky Sports Racing for their continued support of the awards.”

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Kirsten Rausing on Alpinista: ‘There Were a Lot of Tears Shed’

On Sunday, Kirsten Rausing and Sir Mark Prescott achieved the impossible in uniting racing's participants in joy at the victory of Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

For Prescott, Newmarket's longest-serving trainer now in his 53rd season with a licence, it was a moment that brought a tear to his eye as the witty one-liners for which he is famous gave way to pure emotion. For Rausing, too, who has painstakingly developed a broodmare band of significant international note over more than four decades at her Lanwades Stud, the five-year-old mare's resounding success at ParisLongchamp was a moment of extreme satisfaction. 

“It was a marvellous, marvellous day for all of us, and there is a big team that has achieved this, but it will still take some time to sink in,” said the owner-breeder on Monday morning as she continued to wade through messages of congratulation before turning her attention to the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls. 

“Of course it was marvellous to see this crowning achievement of Sir Mark's fantastic career as well. We hardly needed a plane coming home,” she added of the man who has trained her homebreds for 35 years, including Alpinista's dam Alwilda (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) and grand-dam, the treble Group 1 winner Albanova (GB) (Alzao).

Until Sunday, it would likely have been Albanova's full-sister, the dual Champion S. winner Alborada (GB), who held the top spot in Rausing's affections but the fellow grey mare, also trained by Prescott, will now be vying for that honour with her relation Alpinista, whose Arc victory was her sixth consecutive Group 1 win and ensured that she has remained unbeaten for two years. 

It would be hard to find anyone in the breeding business who can speak with more authority and depth of pedigree knowledge than the Swedish-born Rausing. Her association with Alpinista's family started in 1985 when she purchased her fourth dam Alruccaba (Ire) Crystal Palace {Fr}) from the Aga Khan in partnership with her great friend Sonia Rogers of Airlie Stud, where Rausing spent some of her formative years working in the bloodstock business. Needless to say, it was no accident that Rausing ended up with a mare who would go on to have such a profound influence on her broodmare band and is also the ancestress of this season's St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}).

“When I was a schoolgirl my grandfather taught me about pedigrees,” she recalled. “We started with dairy cattle and gun dogs and then we proceeded to thoroughbred horses, of which he knew nothing but he was very interested in their pedigrees and [books such as] Sir Charles Leicester's Breeding a Racehorse. The hero of anyone interested in breeding was the old Aga Khan–Lady Josephine (GB), Mumtaz Mahal (GB) and all that–and so it was through study of the old books and these wonderful fillies that I always thought that this family was, to my understanding, the very best in the studbook.”

Mumtaz Mahal, a daughter of The Tetrarch (Ire) who was purchased as a yearling by Aga Khan III and who became known as the 'Flying Filly' for her extraordinary success on the track, became an even bigger influence at stud for her owner. Fittingly, in the year in which the Aga Khan Studs celebrates its centenary, Mumtaz Mahal appears as the tenth dam of Alpinista.

Rausing continued, “So I was a great admirer of Mumtaz Mahal and those that came after her, and it also helped that when I was a child the Swedish National Stud had a horse called Darbhanga (GB) and he was by Dastur (GB) out of Mumtaz Begum (Fr), so he was a half-brother to Nasrullah (GB). He was a year or two older than Nasrullah and had been second in the Triple Crown in England but being by Dastur nobody wanted him. Nasrullah's greatness had yet to appear, so the Swedish government was able to buy this horse just after the war in 1945 and he came to Sweden and was a great success, probably the best there ever was. In fact, Bull Hancock sent an emissary to Sweden in the 1950s with a blank cheque to buy Nasrullah's brother but the Swedish government said, 'Whom do you take us for, we are a socialist government, not horse wranglers.' In a way that was a pity because if the horse had gone to Kentucky he would have had much more influence of course.”

The first Classic winner bred by Rausing's grandfather was a Danish 1,000 Guineas winner by Darbhanga out of a mare by Abernant (GB), and was thus inbred to Mumtaz Mahal. 

“So that really focused my absolute concentration on this family since I was a schoolgirl,” said Rausing, who bought Ayesha (GB) from Madame Couturié in 1967 from a different branch of the family and bred from her Ayah, who was the second-best two-year-old filly in Ireland in 1975.

“She had the SWE suffix so that was quite an achievement,” Rausing said. “But she died quite early so I was always scouring the catalogues for anything from that family. If anything ever cropped up they were always way too expensive for me. “When I saw Alruccaba in the book as a winning two-year-old in the December Sales of 1985 I was of course mad keen. I went to see her surreptitiously before the sales and, very luckily for me, she had a distinct tendon on her near-fore. She'd been trained by Michael Stoute and at the time his assistant was James Fanshawe who later told me that they'd never had anything slower in the yard, so they were  delighted that she managed to win a maiden at Brighton.”

With Sonia Rogers, a plan was hatched to secure Alruccaba. 

Rausing explained, “Sonia valued her much higher than I did so we had a complicated arrangement that I would bid for her and we would split her up to a certain value, and then if she made more I would keep bidding but she would be 100% Sonia's. Luckily she made a lot less than we thought she would. I bought her for one bid at 19,000gns, her reserve having been 18,000. So Sonia and I owned her together and she spent two years at Lanwades and two years at Airlie, backwards and forwards, throughout her career.”

Alruccaba's offspring include the Sun Chariot S. winner Last Second (Ire) and fellow black-type winners Alleluia (GB), Alouette (GB), and Arrikala (Ire). Another of her daughters, Jude (GB) (Darshaan {GB}), has established her own significant branch of the family which includes the Classic winner Yesterday (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).

“Alruccaba has founded quite a dynasty and it has been helped by the fact that there seems to have been more fillies than colts,” said Rausing. 

There was extra satisfaction for the breeder in the success of Alpinista as she is out of a mare by the former Lanwades resident Hernando (Fr), who also featured as broodmare sire of Saturday's G1 Prix de Royallieu winner Sea La Rosa (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), bred by Guy Heald.

She said, “With the few opportunities numerically that Hernando had, like Selkirk, he is a significant damsire.”

For Alpinista, the paddocks of Lanwades will call her home for next season after four honourable years in training, in which she has to date won ten of her 15 starts.

“She's done enough, more than enough, and I am eternally grateful to her,” Rausing said. “Whether she runs again is a matter for Sir Mark. She gave us such an incredible day on Sunday and there were a lot of tears shed, even perhaps a few by the great man himself.”

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Seven Days: Out of the Frying Pan

Sir Mark Prescott will happily recount the story of the time he bashed his former pupil assistant William Haggas over the head with a frying pan for oversleeping. He will also reflect with pleasure on the great pride he felt when Haggas won the Derby in 1996 with Shaamit (Ire).

When it comes to being a benevolent dictator, the Prescott pendulum has, by his own admission, swung more from dictatorship towards benevolence in recent years and, more than anyone involved in British racing, the master of Heath House cares deeply for the history of the sport, its milestones, and its continuing traditions.

Prescott will certainly be enjoying the fact that Haggas currently has the best horse in the world in his clutches, Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who notched his perfect ten in the Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday, earning a provisional Timeform rating of 137 with his imperious six-and-half-length romp over last year's winner, Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}).

But when it came to moments of exultation on the Knavesmire last week, there was as much jubilation for the victory of the Prescott-trained Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Yorkshire Oaks as there was for Baaeed. Alpinista had been runner-up to the Oaks winner Love (Ire) in the Yorkshire Oaks of 2020 and, despite adding British Listed and Group 2 victories to her tally since then, her big-race successes had all come overseas until last Thursday.

Even if Kirsten Rausing's grey mare had retired last year at the end of her 4-year-old season she would still have been a treble Group 1 winner who had  achieved the remarkable feat of emulating her own grand-dam, Albanova (GB), by winning the Grosser Preis von Berlin – famously beating subsequent Arc winner Torquator Tasso (Ger) – then the Preis von Europa and Grosser Preis von Bayern. But we were treated to an extra season, and what a year it has been so far for the current star of the prolific Lanwades breeding programme. Two-for-two in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Yorkshire Oaks, Alpinista looks set for a rematch with Torquator Tasso at Longchamp on the first weekend of October. Whether or not she will also face Baaeed in the Arc remains in doubt. The crowd are certainly baying for it, and indeed the manner in which the Shadwell homebred won the Juddmonte International did nothing to suggest he would not see out another two furlongs. Haggas raised the idea that the Irish Champion S. could be the colt's next port of call for what looks likely to be his penultimate race, but wherever and however he ends his career Baaeed will surely be Horse of the Year.

Maybe because he didn't race at two and isn't a Classic winner, Baaeed is somehow not afforded the level of adulation deserving of a horse of his calibre, which is a shame, because let's face it, he's bloody brilliant. Naturally he is most often compared to two previous winners of the International in his own sire Sea The Stars, for whom it was one of six consecutive Group 1 wins in 2009, starting with the 2,000 Guineas and ending with the Arc, and Frankel, who brought York to a standstill a decade ago with his seven-length victory.

The debate will rage endlessly among racing folk as it which of those two greats was the greatest, but it doesn't really matter. What is more important is that both Sea The Stars and Frankel have gone on to be important sires in their own right, with their offspring lighting up racecourses around the world, just as Baaeed and Alpinista did last week at York.

And in the case of those two most recent Group 1 winners, equally important is that they both represent families which have been the cornerstone of their respective breeders' empires for generations. From Sheikh Hamdan's purchase of Height Of Fashion (Fr) from the Queen in 1982 stems Baaeed, while the purchase of Alpinista's fourth dam Alruccaba (Ire) in 1985 by Kirsten Rausing and Sonia Rogers from the Aga Khan has resulted in an impressive dynasty being assembled largely, but by no means solely, at Rausing's Lanwades Stud. Alpinista's run of success is all the more special to those who enjoy the continuity of the great families for it being the centenary of the Aga Khan Studs, an operation which owes much of its own success to her tenth dam, one of the greatest greys of all time, Mumtaz Mahal (GB), who was born 101 years ago and still exerts such influence over the breed.

Trevaunance at the Double

On the subject of anniversaries, the 60th year of Moyglare Stud continues to be marked with great success on the track. As well as an Irish 1,000 Guineas victory for Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), and racing the top stayer in Europe, homebred Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), in partnership with Coolmore, Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner's operation celebrated back-to-back group wins for Trevaunance (Ire) in the G2 Prix de la Nonette. Trained by Jessica Harrington, the daughter of Muhaarar (GB) had previously won the G3 Prix de Psyche at Deauville's opening meeting 18 days earlier.

Trevaunance marks the blending of two notable Irish stud farms. Her dam Liber Nauticus (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) was bought by Moyglare from the Ballymacoll Stud dispersal of 2017, and is from a celebrated family which includes dual Breeders' Cup hero Conduit (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}) and Irish 2,000 Guineas and Champion S. winner Spectrum (Ire) (Rainbow Quest).

Never Again – and Again

Nine years ago No Nay Never bounced from victory in a Keeneland maiden to the G2 Norfolk S. followed by the G1 Darley Prix Morny, and he is now the sire of a Morny winner following the success of Blackbeard (Ire) on Sunday.

It has to be said that a five-runner Prix Morny with no French-bred or -trained horse was a little disappointing, but there is nothing disappointing about the winner himself, who has had a busy first campaign and has now won five of his seven starts for Aidan O'Brien, including the G2 Prix Robert Papin. 

Twenty-four hours earlier, No Nay Never had been represented by a Group 2 juvenile double at the Curragh, courtesy of the exquisite-looking Meditate (Ire) and Aesop's Fables (Ire), both Ballydoyle stable-mates of Blackbeard and the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. winner Little Big Bear (Ire). No Nay Never is steaming ahead as the leading sire of juveniles in Europe this year, with Whitsbury Manor Stud's freshman Havana Grey (GB) in determined pursuit.

Deauville's other group races on Sunday fell to Richard Hannon, with the Rathasker Stud-bred Aristia (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) going one better than her finish behind Nashwa (GB) in the G1 Nassau S. to win the G1 Prix Jean Romanet, and to William Haggas, who completed a fantastic week in style with simultaneous victories in the G2 Prix de Pomone with Sea La Rosa (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and G3 Tally-Ho Stud Ballyogan S. at Naas with Perfect News (GB) (Frankel {GB}). 

Sea La Rosa also brought up an impressive double for both her dam Soho Rose (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) and breeder Guy Heald following the win of her brother Deauville Legend (Ire) in the G2 Dante S. at York. 

Only Yann Barberot managed to keep a group race at home for the French trainers this weekend, and that has been a theme in Deauville again this summer, with 13 of the 17 group races having been won by British or Irish trainers, including all five Group 1 contests.

Golden Moments

Both Nathaniel (Ire) and Golden Horn (GB) have covered a number of National Hunt mares this year, and indeed the latter is now officially standing as a dual-purpose sire at Overbury Stud from next season. But both are still eminently capable of getting decent Flat runners, as exemplified by results at York this week.

Godolphin's Trawlerman (GB) landed the valuable Ebor H. under Frankie Dettori, while Haskoy (GB) became the second of Golden Horn's daughters to win the Listed Galtres S. The Juddmonte-bred filly, who was making just her second start, is out of a mare by Nathaniel, who also featured as the damsire of G3 Solario S. winner Silver Knott (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), the first foal of Group 1 winner God Given (GB).

Meanwhile, though the G2 Lonsdale Cup was drastically depleted by the defections of Stradivarius (Ire) and Trueshan (Fr), there was plenty to enjoy about the emphatic victory of Nathaniel's five-year-old son Quickthorn (GB) for his owner/breeder Lady Blyth.

While we are handing out bouquets, the mighty mare Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) deserves an extra-large one for winning back-to-back Group 1s in Deauville and York within 12 days, to take her tally to 11 wins from 29 starts for her owner/breeder John Fairley and trainer John Quinn.

Another should go to the Whitsbury Manor Stud broodmare Suelita (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), who added the G3 Acomb S. winner Chaldean  (GB) (Frankel {GB}) – a rare non-homebred runner for Juddmonte – to her list of black-type performers which now numbers five and includes the G2 Mill Reef S winner Alkumait (GB) (Showcasing {GB}). 

Finally, one trainer who almost certainly hasn't been bashed over the head with a frying pan by Sir Mark Prescott, but who, like Haggas, has enjoyed a fruitful week, is Ralph Beckett. Within five minutes on Saturday his stable was represented by the G2 City of York S. winner Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Listed Chester S. victrix River of Stars (Ire), who was one of five stakes winners for Sea The Stars last week. Beckett's good week also included the aforementioned Haskoy among his seven winners.

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Frankel’s Alpinista Secures Fifth Group 1 On The Knavesmire

Kirsten Rausing's homebred 5-year-old mare Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}), unbeaten through five tests last term, disposed of esteemed rivals in last month's G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on seasonal return and maintained her winning streak with a decisive success as the 7-4 favourite in a stellar edition of Thursday's G1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks on the Knavesmire, a “Win And You're In” for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf in November. Successful in the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, G1 Preis von Europa and G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern last year, she became Sir Mark Prescott's first domestic Group 1 winner since Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) annexed 2017's G1 Nunthorpe S. at this meeting. The grey's second dam Albanova (GB) (Alzao) rattled off the same trio of German Group 1 triumphs in 2004 and she embellished her record with a fifth straight elite-level triumph in the 12-furlong test. Trainer Sir Mark Prescott had voiced pace concerns beforehand, going so far as to say she may have to make her own running, but his worries were assuaged as G1 Pretty Polly S. victrix La Petite Coco (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}) and G1 Irish Oaks heroine Magical Lagoon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) disputed a solid tempo up front with Alpinista positioned in behind in a stalking third. Urged closer once into the long home straight, she went to the front approaching the quarter-mile marker and was driven out in the closing stages as Epsom's G1 Oaks winner Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) gave vain chase. At the line, Alpinista held a one-length advantage with La Petite Coco staying on well once headed to finish 1 3/4 lengths further adrift in third.

“They are all great, but Group 1 races are hard to come by and, for a smallish stable, every five or six years you get good ones come along and it's tremendous when it happens,” said Prescott. “We trained this one's dam, granddam and great granddam. It's been a marvellous family. The original intention was to go [G1] Coronation Cup and [G1] King George [VI & Queen Elizabeth S.], but she wouldn't come in her coat in time for the Coronation, so it then became Saint-Cloud and then either here or the [G1 Prix] Vermeille. Miss Rausing was very keen to come here as she hadn't won a Group 1 in England. She has really done it all now, she's won Group 1s in England, France and Germany.”

Looking ahead, the veteran Heath House conditioner added, “The [G1 Prix de l'] Arc [de Triomphe] has always been her aim. Last year we rather patted ourselves on the back for being so clever winning three Group 1s in Germany, then, when the one behind us [Torquator Tasso] came and won the Arc, we rather felt we might not have been as clever as we thought we were. When she stayed in training this year that was always the aim.”

Winning jockey Luke Morris is also relishing the prospect of going to ParisLongchamp on the first Sunday in October. “Since she has been on better ground this year she has looked like a filly with more class so we can dream about Paris now,” he said. “Generally the Yorkshire Oaks can look a little top heavy with a superstar of Aidan's, but I thought it had a lot of depth and she had to give nine pounds away to the second. I thought it was a great performance and it's great she's been able to show in Britain what she is capable of. It's a massive effort from the teams at Heath House and Lanwades Stud. I'm just the lucky one that gets to sit on her a couple of times a year.”

Aidan O'Brien was not too downcast, despite Tuesday's defeat, and looked ahead to future targets after the G1 Oaks heroine failed to reel in the winner. “She will go on Irish Champions weekend somewhere, whether she will stay here [in England], or whether she will go to Ireland or whether she will go to France or whatever. Hopefully she will go somewhere. We were happy enough with that. It was her first run back, she ran very well and I don't think she was losing any ground going to the line. She has come back to form after [finishing fourth in the G1 Irish Derby at] the Curragh. She was a bit hot before the race, but I didn't mind that as I was hot myself. She is in the mix for the Arc and other races.”

Team Valor's La Petite Coco would have preferred more juice in the ground, but nonetheless produced a display of star quality in third. “She is not the type to set the pace, but nobody else wanted to so that was somewhat less than ideal,” admitted Barry Irwin. “I think the difference between her finishing right there with the first two and where she did finish was somewhat quality, because they are two fantastic horses for sure, but our filly needs the soft. The ground had a good cover on top, but underneath it was firm and she can't lay her body down like that. On soft turf, not that the others would not have run as well, I think we would have been able to hang with them better if the ground was softer. The fact that the race turned into something of a sprint, and that she wasn't going to let herself down as well, played against her somewhat.” It's unlikely connections will be tempted into a rematch with Alpinista in Paris. “Paddy [Twomey] is talking about the [G1] Prix de l'Opera or the [G1] Champion S. [at Ascot]. That is what he is looking at, we need to wait for the ground to soften and we are going to forget about the Arc this year. When she won at the Curragh it was like a miracle, where it rained just before the race and she got her ground. Even though she wasn't really totally fit, she was able to win anyway because of the ground.”

Alpinista, kin to a 2-year-old colt by Oasis Dream (GB) and a weanling filly by Iffraaj (GB), is the first of four foals and one of two winners produced by a stakes-winning half-sister to four black-type performers out of the aforementioned Albanova (GB) (Alzao). The quartet includes G3 Legacy Cup victor Algometer (GB) (Archipenko), stakes-winning G3 Geoffrey Freer S. third Alignak (GB) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) and multiple stakes scorer All At Sea (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}). Albanova is one of four black-type performers thrown by G1 Moyglare Stud S. third Alouette (GB) (Darshaan {GB}), whose descendants also include dual G1 Champion S. heroine Alborada (GB) (Alzao) and stakes-winning G1 Epsom Derby runner-up Dragon Dancer (GB) (Sadler's Wells). Alouette is a half-sister to G3 Doncaster Cup vixtrix Alleluia (GB) Caerleon), who produced G1 Prix Royal-Oak heroine Allegretto (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and G2 Nassau S. winner Last Second (Ire) (Alzao), with the latter being the dam of G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains-winning sire Aussie Rules (Danehill).

Thursday, York, Britain
DARLEY YORKSHIRE OAKS-G1, £533,750, York, 8-18, 3yo/up, f, 11f 188yT, 2:29.92, gd.
1–ALPINISTA (GB), 135, m, 5, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Alwilda (GB) (SW-Ger & SP-Eng), by Hernando (Fr)
2nd Dam: Albanova (GB), by Alzao
3rd Dam: Alouette (GB), by Darshaan (GB)
O/B-Kirsten Rausing (GB); T-Sir Mark Prescott; J-Luke Morris. £302,690. Lifetime Record: MG1SW-Ger & G1SW-Fr, 14-9-2-0, $1,165,186. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Tuesday (Ire), 126, f, 3, Galileo (Ire)–Lillie Langtry (Ire), by Danehill Dancer (Ire). O-Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith & Westerberg; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien. £114,756.
3–La Petite Coco (Ire), 135, f, 4, Ruler Of The World (Ire)–La Petite Virginia (Ger), by Konigstiger (Ger). O-Team Valor International LLC; B-Mr B Schone (IRE); T-Paddy Twomey. £57,432.
Margins: 1, 1 3/4, 2HF. Odds: 1.75, 3.50, 4.00.
Also Ran: Lilac Road (Ire), Magical Lagoon (Ire), Raclette (GB), Poptronic (GB). Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

 

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