Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals | Horse Racing Free Tips

TDN Horses of the Year: Big Rock

Continuing the profiles of the favourite horses of TDN Europe's editorial team in 2023, Emma Berry selects the French raider who took QIPCO British Champions Day by storm.

I'd been impressed by Christopher Head since the day I first visited his stable in July 2019 and found him on the end of a broomstick sweeping the floor outside the rented boxes of the five horses he had in training at that time.

His ascent has been rapid, and by now his string must be 20 times that size. And, yes, he has a surname that would open doors in France and beyond, but it is hard not to respect the progress made within the short time Head has been training. In 2023, his first Classic win with Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), who had also been his first Group 1 winner in the previous season's Prix Marcel Boussac, was followed by his first Group 1 success outside France.

Big Rock (Ire) first caught the eye with his dominant performance in the G3 Prix La Force at Longchamp. Off he went in front, and when Padishakh (Fr) came for him in the straight, he kicked again, repelling that challenger and ultimately winning eased down. This he repeated, even more impressively, when winning the G3 Prix de Guiche at Chantilly, with Aurelien Lemaitre simply having to coax him with hands and heels to put five lengths between himself and Horizon Dore (Fr). The runner-up would go on to record four straight stakes wins including two Group 2s.

Big Rock stepped up to the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and, for much of the race, the front-running son of Rock of Gibraltar (Ire) looked as though he would once again have things all his own way before Ace Impact (Ire) set sail from the back of the pack.

Chalk and cheese in their running styles, the trail-blazing Big Rock and stalking Ace Impact set the French scene alight this year. While the latter continued to storm through his season unbeaten, deploying a similarly devastating late turn of foot to win the Arc before retiring to stud, Big Rock thrice ran into just one that would get the better of him. They were good ones, mind. Inspiral (GB) took his scalp the next time in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois, and then Sauterne (Fr) in the G1 Prix du Moulin. But then came Ascot.

There is often much gnashing of teeth in the build-up to QIPCO British Champions Day, which is usually accompanied by typically wet autumn weather, making the ground testing. It was no problem for Big Rock, however, who coped with the soft ground just as he had done in his five-length romp at Chantilly in May, turning his seasonal finale into a procession.

This time it was a six-length pasting he gave his rivals in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S., making all to rout a quality field that included the multiple Group 1 winners Tahiyra (Ire), Nashwa (GB), Paddington (GB) and Chaldean (GB). A dazzling performance to cut through the gloom of the day.

Big Rock looks a big star in the making for his late sire who had his own dazzling brand of magic over a mile, and the Yeguada Centurion homebred has a strong pedigree to recommend him once he makes it to stud. His Aga Khan-bred dam, by Sea The Stars (Ire), is out of a half-sister to one of that stallion's best sons, the dual Derby winner Harzand (Ire). But before we even think about his stallion career, let's applaud his owner Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals for allowing him to race on and enjoy Big Rock back on the track in 2024.

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Back to Deauville as the Arqana October Sale Begins

DEAUVILLE, France–The broodmare shopping spree of Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals several years ago has already resulted in his first homebred Group 1 winner, Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), a daughter of the Jeremy mare Queen Blossom (Ire) who heads next to the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland.

It was next door to that track that Fernandez Pujals, who operates as Yeguada Centurion, bought Needmore Flattery (Flatter) from Lane's End Farm in 2019. That same year she had foaled a Gun Runner colt, who was later named Taiba and went on to to win this season's GI Santa Anita Derby and G1 Pennsylvania Derby. His trainer Bob Baffert is not known for scouting the European yearling sales, but it would be no surprise to see some transatlantic interest in Taiba's yearling brother from the first crop of Arc winner Waldgeist (GB), who features on the opening day of Arqana's October Yearling Sale as lot 51.

Consigned by the Garcon family's Haras de l'Hotellerie, which boards mares for the Yeguada Centurion operation, the chestnut colt is the fourth foal for his dam, a hard-knocking multiple stakes winner who claimed 17 victories during a four-season racing career and hit the jackpot with her first foal, Taiba.

The October Sale in Deauville was expanded during the pandemic to incorporate some Osarus yearlings and that larger format has remained, with a five-day auction conducted in three parts, commencing from Monday morning.

Part 1 of last year's sale featured as many international names on the buyers' sheet as one might see during the August Sale and, following solid trade throughout the season, we can expect that to roll on this week to Arqana, which has catalogued 781 yearlings, with 333 of those in Part 1, staged over Monday and Tuesday.

Included among the early offerings is a half-brother to last season's G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Tiger Tanaka (Fr) (Clodovil {Ire}) by the increasingly popular Mehmas (Ire) who is consigned as lot 42 by Haras d'Etreham. In fact consecutive lots from that draft could well attract plenty of interest as the next through the ring will be the Almanzor (Fr) second foal of the G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible (Ire), who is herself a daughter of Galileo (Ire) and the G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Margot Did (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}).

A little later on the opening day, Haras du Logis Saint German will offer lot 157, a full-brother to its Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine Dream And Do (Fr), who is one of 19 yearlings by the French champion sire Siyouni (Fr) in the sale.

On of the this season's freshman sires in Europe whose stock will not have been seen too far outside France is Siyouni's fast son City Light (Fr), who is represented by 32 yearlings at Arqana. Trained locally in Deauville by Stephane Wattel, City Light was a dual Group 3 winner in France and runner-up in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot, and he is now standing at the farm that launched Wootton Bassett, Haras d'Etreham.

Selling begins on Monday at the Elie de Brignac complex at 11am local time.

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Sibila Spain A Group 1 First For Head

The name Head appears multiple times in the winning trainer category on the Prix Saint-Alary roll of honour. Alec, Criquette and Freddy have all trained winners of the fillies' Group 1, and the latter also rode the winner, usually for his father or his sister, on seven occasions.

In the line-up for the 2021 running of the Saint-Alary next Monday is likely to be a filly trained by one of the next generation of the Head family, Christopher, a son of Freddy, who has taken the bold decision to supplement the unbeaten Sibila Spain (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) for her first outing in Pattern company, straight to the very top level.

Head is now in his second full season with a training licence and has his Chantilly team based in the stable still owned by John Hammond alongside the town's famous Les Aigles turf gallops. That his team of around 14 horses enters the training grounds daily via the Porte Montjeu is an indication of at least one of the champions that has trodden that path before them, and it is not lost on Head.

He says, “Suave Dancer and a lot of very good horses that John trained have been in the same places and I hope it rubs off on this filly, too.”

Sibila Spain is one of two horses in his stable owned by Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals of Yeguada Centurion. The Spanish businessman's equine interests began in the sport horse world with native Andalusians, but in recent years he has made quite a splash as an investor in Thoroughbred racing, notably spending more than $3 million on mares at Keeneland's November Sale in 2019, as well as making significant purchases in Europe. One of those was the Coolmore-bred Frankel filly out of the listed winner L'Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), now known as Sibila Spain. She is a full-sister to Group 3 winner Master Of Reality (Ire) and half to listed winner Chamonix (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and her immediate family already includes a Saint-Alary winner–her dam's full-sister Cerulean Sky (Ire)–while the mare's half-sister Moonstone (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}) won the Irish Oaks.

It is a pedigree which entitles both owner and trainer to dream big, and that is exactly what they are doing, though it is no pipe dream. Sibila Spain made her racecourse debut in the Prix Monade at Saint-Cloud on Mar. 25 in a race replete with bluebloods. At the winning post she was nine lengths clear of the runner-up. Three weeks later, the ground at Lyon Parilly was good to soft, rather than the heavy turf she encountered in Paris, but she finished out in front again over the 2,200 metres. In the process she did nothing to alter the impression that she is a filly just waiting to have her name stamped in bold black type.

Head casts his mind back to his own early impressions of the filly who arrived in his stable on Feb. 2. He says, “She changed a lot through the first month and then I had the chance to work her with some of the good horses of my father and she was going a lot better than them. She showed enough for me to feel that she could start out in a good race. Most of the later-developing fillies that are going for the Diane start in that maiden. So we were already expecting her to run well, but we were against big trainers, big owners. Although I thought she would be able to win I didn't think it would be by that far. That was the real surprise, the number of lengths she was from the others.”

He continues, “We needed those few races to know her better and I have the feeling that she is coming to the Saint-Alary in the perfect shape and with the perfect timing. Since the race in Lyon I feel she has really improved and that's why I think it is the right thing to do. She probably is better in the soft ground, and that should be perfect for the Saint-Alary on Monday as it's soft now and we are expecting more rain through the week.”

Head, a fifth-generation Chantilly horseman from a family with English roots, is not the only trainer in France with a horse for Yeguada Centurion. The Spanish-born but French-based Mauricio Delcher Sanchez trains Reina Madre (Ire) (Kingman{GB}), the winner of the G3 Prix Imprudence in April who subsequently finished down the field in Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. Head is naturally delighted to welcome a major owner to his fledgling stable, and Sibila Spain has been joined by the owner's homebred 2-year-old Ready To Win (Ire) (More Than Ready), who was in utero when her dam Miss Melbourne (Fr) (Kentucky Dynamite) was bought by Fernandez Pujals for 300,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale.

The trainer's introduction to the owner came through his cousin several years ago. Head says, “I met him at a lunch in Deauville and he had started the project of buying some black-type mares and breeding his own Thoroughbreds in France. He is doing everything he can to make it succeed and has invested a lot of money. He's really a brilliant man and it's a pleasure to deal with him. Unfortunately he can't come to France for the Saint-Alary as it is still difficult to travel, but he is very excited about the filly.”

Fernandez Pujals is not the only one entitled to be excited. A filly with stakes potential is enough to put a spring in the step of any small trainer, particularly one who is a relatively new licence-holder.

Head laughs as she says, “Of course I am not taking any risks right now to say that she is the best horse I have trained in my life.” But as he speaks the excitement which must be growing in his stable is almost palpable.

He adds, “I am very, very happy with her. I know we are coming from a Class 1 at Lyon and we haven't competed against the group horses, but it's not just the results from her races, she is showing me good things in the mornings and so I expect her to be able to win the Saint-Alary. Her behaviour and temperament has been very good going into the races and that's why we are looking at this race, and the Prix de Diane if she's right after the Saint-Alary.”

The trainer nevertheless describes himself as cautious as the number of horses in his stable rises “slowly but surely”.

“I'm having so much fun. It is my passion but I want to make sure I am working with the right people who I can trust,” he says.

All being well, Sibila Spain will be added to the Prix Saint-Alary line-up at the supplementary stage this Thursday and, come race day, will renew her acquaintance with Aurelien Lemaitre, who has ridden her in her two wins.

“We won't change the jockey,” Head says. “I've been raised by a jockey and he always told me that it's not their fault when a race goes wrong. Most of the time it is the fault of the trainer rather than the jockey. Aurelien is a very good jockey and we grew up together as I was working at my father's place when he was apprenticed there, so it is really good now to be running in a group race together.”

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Daughter Of Frankel A New Rising Star At Saint-Cloud

There were several unraced fillies in the line-up for Thursday's 10-furlong Prix Monade at Saint-Cloud with immense residual value and abundant racing promise, but at the end there was only one that mattered as Yeguada Centurion's Sibila Spain (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) put them to the sword with an audacious front-running display of power. Showing impressive instant pace to arrive at the head of affairs soon after breaking from the widest stall, the April-foaled daughter of the high-class L'Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) was then able to switch off and cruise in an untroubled lead for Aurelien Lemaitre. While her rivals waited and stacked up behind, the 9-1 shot effectively killed the contest in early straight as she kicked approaching the final two furlongs. Having built a sizeable advantage by the time she reached the furlong pole, the bay allowed her rider a lingering look around and she was being eased from there with no conceivable threat. At the line, she had registered a resounding nine-length success from the Nicolas Clement-trained Play All Day (Kitten's Joy), who in turn had 3/4 of a length to spare over George Strawbridge's Vouchsafe (Ire) (Kingman {GB}). The latter is a half-sister to the multiple group 1 winner Moonlight Cloud (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and was one of the clutch of bluebloods cut adrift by the dynamic winner. Also in the backwash was the fourth-placed Urbania (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), the Wertheimers' daughter of the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Plumania (GB) (Anabaa), and Godolphin's eighth-placed Hidden Thought (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), a daughter of the high-class Secret Gesture (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) in what has to be the most intriguing European maiden so far in 2021.

Sibila Spain marks the first serious prospect and is the first winner in 2021 for the burgeoning Christopher Head stable and, as her name suggests, is owned by Spanish interests. Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals is a relatively new but significant presence on the bloodstock stage, with this €240,000 purchase at the Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale coming just weeks prior to his spending spree at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Sibila Spain was bought two days after La Venus Espagnola (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) sported the Yeguada Centurion silks in public for the first time at the Normandy track's racing festival.

“This horse was initially trained in Madrid and then sent to the training centre of Alban Chevalier du Fau in West France in November,” Head explained. “She came to me Feb. 2 and doesn't have too much work behind her, so she's certainly not 100% yet and has a lot to learn, so I will try to improve her with every run. It wasn't the plan to go to the front, but after she broke so well Aurelien said she was very comfortable with her ears pricked so it was best to go on. She proved clearly the best in the race and although I have an idea where she will run next, I will talk her to owner first.”

L'Ancresse raced in the Michael Tabor colours with distinction for Ballydoyle and was second in the 2003 G1 Irish Oaks before finishing in the same position in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita. Only a neck behind Islington (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), with the likes of Yesterday (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), Heat Haze (GB) (Green Desert), Megahertz (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) and Riskaverse (Dynaformer) in arrears in one of the strongest editions of that prize to be run, she was becoming the latest to fly the flag for Roger Baines' Somerset-based Britton House Stud. Her dam Solo de Lune (Ire) (Law Society) was an outstanding font of top-class runners, being responsible for the G1 Prix Saint-Alary heroine Cerulean Sky (Ire) also by Darshaan and Moonstone (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}), who took the G1 Irish Oaks having been second in the Epsom Classic.

Moonstone produced five black-type winners headed by the G3 Chester Vase scorer US Army Ranger (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who was runner-up in the G1 Epsom Derby, and Frankel's G3 Golden Fleece S. scorer Nelson (Ire). Cerulean Sky was responsible for the G2 Doncaster Cup winner and G1 St Leger third Honolulu (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) and is the second dam of the trio of group winners Royal Bench (Ire) (Whipper), Memphis Tennessee (Ire) (Hurricane Run {Ire}) and Mayhem (Ire) (Whipper). Another of Solo de Lune's eight black-type performers Bywayofthestars (GB) (Danehill) was the dam of Orchestra (Ire), another Galileo who like US Army Ranger captured the Chester Vase and made the frame in the Irish Derby.

L'Ancresse took time to emerge as a smart producer in her own right, but her first foal Minkova (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) did throw the G3 Henry II S. and G3 Ormonde S. winner Magic Circle (Ire) (Makfi {GB}). Her 2009 progeny was Chamonix (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who took the Listed Oyster S. and Listed Listowel S., but it was only in 2015 when she first visited Frankel that the magic began to occur. Master of Reality (Ire) was a slow-burner and ultimately a dour stayer, but a high-class one who captured the G3 Vintage Crop S. and was third in the G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and a head second before being demoted to fourth in the 2019 G1 Melbourne Cup, GSW-Ire, G1SP-Eng, SP-Fr, $485,468. A year later, the useful listed-placed Eminent Authority (Ire) was another son of the Juddmonte giant to boost his dam's profile while her 2017 filly Frankenstella (Ire) showed promise last term as a staying handicapper who could make her presence felt in black-type company. Sibila Spain is her last known foal, but her ability to inject pace into a middle-distance trip at the first time of asking is both surprising and highly encouraging given that the family stay much further and tend to need time. With that in mind, she could be some closing act.

5th-Saint-Cloud, €27,000, Debutantes, 3-25, 3yo, f, 10fT, 2:15.20, hy.
SIBILA SPAIN (IRE), f, 3, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: L'Ancresse (Ire) (Hwt. 3yo Filly-Ire at 9 1/2-10 1/2f, SW & G1SP-Ire, GISP-US, $398,490), by Darshaan (GB)
2nd Dam: Solo de Lune (Ire), by Law Society
3rd Dam: Truly Special (Ire), by Caerleon
(€240,000 Ylg '19 ARAUG). Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, €13,500. O-Yeguada Centurion SL; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Christopher Head. Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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