Tag: Mise En Scene (GB)

Making Waves: Monmouth Success For Kingman Filly

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by Startup Mentality, who won the Monmouth curtain-raiser on Haskell Day in Oceanport, New Jersey.

Kingman Filly Succeeds On Haskell Undercard

Klaravich Stables and Chad Brown teamed up to take the first race on GI Haskell S. day at Monmouth Park with Startup Mentality (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) (video).

A 300,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling, the daughter of Fine Time (GB) (Dansili {GB}) was bred by Mountarmstrong Stud. The full-sister to fellow winner Night Battle (Ire) was making her first start, while her dam has fillies by Lope De Vega (Ire) and Night Of Thunder (Ire) born in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Fine Time is a full-sister to three stakes winners anchored by Group 1 winner Passage Of Time (GB), herself the dam of burgeoning young sire Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) who won four group races and was second in the GI Manhattan S.; and a half-sister to G1 Falmouth S. heroine Timepiece (GB) (Zamindar).

Juddmonte's Kingman is the sire of several celebrated runners in the U.S., with a strike rate of 55% for 30 winners from 54 to race. His stakes winners stand at eight (15%) in that jurisdiction.

 

 

California Flair For Havana Grey Gelding

CYBT, McLean Racing Stables, Saul Gevertz and Michael Nentwig's Almendares (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) won his first start in the U.S. at Del Mar last weekend (video).

Originally a 16,000gns Tattersalls December foal, the D. R. Tucker-bred was picked up for 14,000gns as a Tattersalls October Book 3 yearling by Meadowview Stables. From five starts over Dundalk's all-weather surface, the relative of G1 July Cup heroine Fleeting Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) eked out two wins for Mrs. S Slattery and trainer Andrew Slattery. The Del Mar race for his new connections was his first in the U.S. Out of the winning Glace (Ire) (Verglas {Ire}), Almendares has a juvenile, winning full-sister named Graceful Thunder (GB) and a yearling half-sister by Ardad (Ire).

A Champion First-Crop Sire in Britain and Ireland, Whitsbury Manor Stud's Havana Grey has sired two winners from four runners (50%) in the U.S. His Lady Hollywood (GB) was second in the Listed Limestone S. at Keeneland. Overall, he has 11 stakes winners worldwide, with Jasour (GB) leading his quintet of group winners.

 

 

Siyouni Filly Puts It All Together At The Spa

Qatar Racing and Leora Judah's Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) won a Saratoga affair by a neck for trainer Brendan Walsh on Thursday afternoon (video).

Part of The Gadfly Partnership breeding programme, the G3 Prestige S. heroine also won the Listed John Musker Fillies S. for trainer James Ferguson when she raced in England. The relation of G1 Prix Marcel Boussac Criterium des Pouliches heroine Zellie (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) has a Zoustar (Aus) 2-year-old half-sister.

The Aga Khan stallion Siyouni has sired 13 winners from 36 runners (36%) in the U.S. Four of that number are stakes winners (11%), and a trio have won at Grade III level–Sacred Life (Fr), La Signare (Fr), and Love And Thunder (Ire).

 

 

Eylara Shines At Del Mar

John McCormack's Eylara (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) won her first race in her fifth start in the U.S. at Del Mar for trainer Phil D'Amato on Thursday evening (video).

Bred by His Highness The Aga Khan's Studs, the 5-year-old daughter of the stakes-placed Eytarna (Ire) (Dubai Destination) won one of her six starts in Ireland for Dermot Weld in the green and red silks of her breeder, before being purchased for €350,000 at the Goffs November Sale by McCormack.

A half-sister to three black-type horses including five-time group winner Eziyra (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), who was also placed at the top level in Ireland, Hong Kong and England, Eylara is also a half-sister to a yearling filly by Teofilo (Ire) and a weanling colt by Lucky Vega (Ire). Her second dam is blue-hen Ebaziya (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), who produced a quartet of Group 1 winners.

Coolmore's Gleneagles has 10 winners from 17 runners (59%) in the U.S., including the GI Man o' War S. hero Highland Chief (Ire).

 

 

Honourable Mention

Featured in an earlier column, is Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Anisette (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}), who won the GII San Clemente S. on Saturday (video). Now the 10th stakes winner for her sire worldwide, she is his fifth group winner.

 

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Santa Anita Kicks Off 87th Winter/Spring Season of Racing Monday

Santa Anita Park will launch its annual winter/spring live racing season on Monday with a 11-race card featuring six stakes races, highlighted by the $300,000 GI Runhappy Malibu S., $300,000 GI American Oaks, and $300,000 GI La Brea S., the last three Grade Is of the year in the U.S.

Dubbed this season for the first time as the Classic Meet, racing at Santa Anita will be conducted on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule through Apr. 9, the exceptions being Monday, Jan. 2 for the New Year's Day holiday, Monday, Jan. 16 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Monday, Feb. 20 for Presidents' Day. After a brief respite in the spring, live racing will return for a 25-day meet Apr. 22, concluding June 18.

The first race on opening day is set for 11:00 a.m. PST. Then post time will be at noon daily through Jan. 8, at 12:30 p.m. PST through Mar. 12 and 1:00 p.m. PST for the remainder of the Classic Meet with the exception of big-race days.

A total of 93 stakes worth $17.5 million, including 10 Grade Is, are on tap during the 3 ½-month meeting. Led by the $750,000 million GI Santa Anita Derby Apr. 8, the 2022-2023 stakes schedule is rich with GI Kentucky Derby prep races and coveted Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying points. These important Triple Crown prep races are the GIII Sham S. on Jan. 8, which is worth 10 points to the winner; the GIII Robert B. Lewis S. on Feb. 5, also worth 10; and GII San Felipe S. on Mar. 4 which guarantees 50 Road to the Kentucky Derby points to the winner. Overall, 11 winners of the Santa Anita Derby–and 18 runners in California's final prep for the Run for the Roses–have gone on to stand in the winner's circle at Churchill Downs reserved for one horse a year in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, the most recent being 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).

This year, the historic GI Santa Anita H. will be worth $500,000 and the 1 1/4-mile event has been scheduled for Mar. 4. It remains one of the handful of original stakes events contested each year since Santa Anita opened in 1935.

Zedan Racing's Grade I winner and TDN Rising Star Taiba (Gun Runner) will face eight others in the Malibu in his first start since a third-place finish in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Should the chestnut colt win, he would become the only 3-year-old male to win three Grade Is in 2022 and give trainer Bob Baffert a fifth Malibu winner, one shy of fellow Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. The $1.7 million FTFMAR 2-year-old purchase also won the Santa Anita Derby in his second start back in April.

Flightline (Tapit) won his first stakes race in last year's Malibu en-route to a likely 2022 Horse of the Year and champion older male Eclipse Awards.

Mandella will send out multiple Grade II winner Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah) for the seven-furlong test, while former California-based trainer Wesley Ward will try to take advantage of the lucrative ship-and-win money with recent Keeneland allowance winner Nakatomi (Firing Line).

The Malibu has been carded as the 10th race on the card with a 3:30 p.m. PST post time.

Baffert will tighten the girth on four of eight for the La Brea in seeking a record ninth winner, including GII Zenyatta S. winner Midnight Memories (Mastery), GII Summertime Oaks heroine Under The Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) and Fun To Dream (Arrogate), who won the Betty Grable S. at Del Mar last month. Trainer Rudy Rodriguez shipped GIII Victory Ride S. winner Hot Peppers (Khozan) and her jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, to the Left Coast in what will be her first start in 2 1/2 months. Post time for the La Brea, which is the day's 8th race, is 2:30 p.m. PST.

Anchoring the day's card with a 4:11 p.m. PST post time is the American Oaks, which drew a field of 11 runners from coast to coast. Joining the local contingent set to line up will be two trained by East Coast-based Graham Motion, and one each from Brendan Walsh, Chad Brown and Shug McGaughey. Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) debuts for Motion after her previous eight-race career in the hands of Christophe Clement. She most recently was a $3.45 million RNA at KEENOV and returns in the colors of celebrity chef Bobby Flay.

Pizza Bianca will join her new stablemate, GIII Valley View S. winner Sparkle Blue (Hard Spun), in the gate, while Walsh will for the first time send out G1 Bet365 Fillies Mile S. winner Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) returning to action off a sixth-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. McGaughey shipped G2 Sands Point S. winner Skims (GB) (Frankel {GB}) to California with the Brown-trained Winter Memories S. winner and TDN Rising Star Salimah (Ire) (El Kabeir) for the 10-furlong turf test.

Other stakes on the Monday card include the $200,000 GIII Santa Anita Mathis Mile, which drew a field of seven turf milers including I'm A Gambler (Ire) (No Nay Never), who sold for a sales-topping $1,076,000 at TATIHA in October to Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal; the $200,000 GII San Gabriel S., a 1 1/8-mile turf test and traditional early prep for the historic GIII San Juan Capistrano S. at the end of the season; and the $200,000 GII San Antonio S., in years past a traditional prep for the Big 'Cap but more recently used as a stepping stone to both the $6 million G1 Dubai World Cup and $20 million G1 Saudi Cup. Last year's Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer (Tonalist) will have European champion jockey Frankie Dettori back aboard in the 1 1/16-mile test for the first time since the pair teamed up for the win at Meydan nine months ago. Dettori, in his first and likely last winter in California before his retirement from the saddle at the end of 2023, is scheduled to ride five on the Monday card.

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World Tour Only The Start Of Ferguson’s Journey

LEXINGTON, KY–On a morning like this, you really couldn't be anywhere in the world but the Bluegrass: as night faded into dawn, a ghostly mist was exhaled from every swale, only to be burned off as the surrounding pastureland yawned and stretched gratefully beneath a sky of cut-glass brilliance. For one new arrival in Keeneland, however, a degree of disorientation remained wholly pardonable.

Helpfully, James Ferguson had hit a wide-awake phase when coming down to the quarantine barn to supervise the preparations of Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) for the GI Maker's Mark Filly and Mare Turf on Saturday. But if his brain had temporarily caught up with his body, after a gruelling journey from Australia the previous day, many subconscious fragments of recollection doubtless remained to be pieced back together once finally succumbing to sleep.

A young man of such palpable ambition might well be tempted to view their reassembly as the work of nightmare sooner than dream. After all, it wasn't as though there had been merely a fleeting moment when Deauville Legend (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) deceived even neutral observers that he was going to win the G1 Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. He was so insistently drawing the eye, as the first third-quarters of the race began to take its toll on the rest, that it really did seem as though he was going to deliver a stunning success to a stable still in only its third year. Yet in the straight the gelding would be swamped by two closers, and even collared for third in the shadow of the post.

“At the end of the day, he ran a very, very solid race,” Ferguson reflects. “He was given a lovely ride, and I'd say the ground was probably just too soft over that trip. It might have been a different story on quicker ground. As it was, when he went to lengthen, his run sort of halted.

“When they came round the bend, and we were travelling so strongly, I did think that we'd just go away and win it. But then you saw Gold Trip (Fr) (Outstrip) behind and it wasn't a struggle, he came past us very quickly, though I thought Deauville Legend fought on very gamely.

“The price he was given was probably a little unfair, considering he's only three, had never tried the trip and was probably weighted out of it as well. So I was absolutely thrilled with the way he ran. Of course it would have been great to win, but he ran best of the internationals by a long way.”

Fortunately, unlike most of the other shippers, this one will be returning to Ferguson's new base in Newmarket and promises to mature into an elite force over middle distances. Even as things stand, however, he has confirmed the exceptional potential of his 32-year-old trainer. Because it's one thing to send horses round the world in the hope of drawing attention to your emerging business; it's quite another to have such a precocious sense of their eligibility.

Besides Deauville Legend himself, the 3-year-olds developed by Ferguson this season include El Bodegon (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), his breakout Group 1 winner in France last year and sent back over the Channel to finish runner-up in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club. (He was recently beaten under a length on his debut for Chris Waller in the G1 Cox Plate.) Then there's the filly here, already a group winner and definitely considered capable of better than the odds allow. And these have graduated from an intake that initially numbered only 15 or so yearlings.

By knowing rather than guessing that Deauville Legend and El Bodegon were competent for the highest tier, Ferguson not only requires us to take a second look at Mise En Scene. He has quickly shown that he, too, belongs at this level.

And that's no less than one would expect, given his grounding. Forget that his father John can lend such experienced counsel, whether in the stable's recruitment or in such strategic decisions as might warrant a second opinion. By the time he took out a licence, Ferguson had completed a decade of international apprenticeship, absorbing the work of one master after another, from Sir Mark Prescott to Jessica Harrington to Charlie Appleby.

“And for all that I'm a young trainer, we're not a young team,” he says. “I've had a lot of help. Obviously Dad's involved in the planning side, and between us we have a lot of experience under our hats. He's always on the end of the phone if needed. But while you try to learn the best bits from all the people you've worked for, it's about finding a mould that fits you. I think you do that very quickly, and now I'm just looking forward, trying to keeping the ball rolling.”

That agenda is well served by the return of the stable flagship, who first launched himself into wider attention when unlucky not to win the King George V H. at Royal Ascot. That day Deauville Legend failed by just a head to catch Secret State (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) after being held up in traffic at a critical moment, an exasperating conclusion to an inspired project. The form was comprehensively reversed when the protagonists met again in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York later in the summer.

“Ascot had been the plan from a long way out,” Ferguson recalls. “He was very lightly raced, and it was his handicap debut which is a risk from the mentality point of view. But we knew he was okay, and didn't want to blow that handicap mark. It just goes to show, when you see Charlie's horse rated around same as us now, that whereas you could go into that race two years ago 10lbs well in, now you need to be 20lbs well in! Which sounds crazy, but it's true. That's why it needed to be a plan from a long way out. One day we'll get it right, but he thought he'd won and has just kept going forward since.”

In viewing Deauville Legend as the type to keep progressing in 2023, Ferguson already has the GI King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S. in mind.

“I genuinely think he can be a Group 1 horse,” he says. “A lot of those mile-and-a-half horses in England and Ireland are potentially retiring and I think he can be a force to be reckoned with. He's still lightly raced, and has come on huge amounts, mentally. For what I consider quite a hot horse, you wouldn't even have noticed him in the Melbourne Cup preliminaries. He'll be given nice break now but looks the sort that could go to the [G1] Sheema Classic.”

As for the business immediately in hand, Ferguson thought enough of Mise En Scene to start off her campaign in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas. Disappointing there, she made a promising resumption at Sandown in August and was then only caught in a photo in a listed race at Yarmouth last time.

“Things didn't really go quite right for her earlier in the season,” Ferguson acknowledges. “She needed a bit of a regroup after Ireland, wasn't quite right, so we turned her out and she has come back really well: she was running on strongly at Sandown, and I thought she was very unlucky at Yarmouth.

“The experience of running out here last year [beaten four lengths in the GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf at Del Mar] has definitely helped: she's really grown up, she's going round here like a pony. I feel we've got her in absolutely the peak of her condition right now. Despite the odds, I think she'll run very big race. It's a big ask, she's an outsider for a reason, but I don't think run like one.”

Once returning from this dazing odyssey, which could nearly be titled “Around the World in 80 Hours”, Ferguson will be raring to get a string of around 75 primed for their first campaign out of the Kremlin Cottage yard that previously accommodated Hugo Palmer.

“It's obviously very exciting,” Ferguson says. “We worked really hard at the sales and I hope it's paid off, we've a lot of lovely yearlings and been supported by some great owners. Yes, the stats are pretty good from that group of [2020] yearlings. But I've got a good team at home, helping us train, and the buying is obviously very important, too, between Dad and myself and people like Mark McStay. And then we have Qatar [Racing] kindly sending us Mise En Scene. So it's a massive team effort. It does feel like we're getting there. If we keep having big runners at meetings like this, then hopefully we will end up with big winners too.”

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Tenebrism Tops 16 in 1000 Guineas

Undefeated Tenebrism (Caravaggio) is the 11-4 early choice among 16 confirmations for Sunday's Qipco 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. Long-time ante-post favourite Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) was ruled out of the fillies' Classic Sunday. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, the G1 Cheveley Park S. heroine will attempt to give the trainer his sixth win in the race in seven years. O'Brien may also be represented by maiden winners Toy (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Included among Irish-breds who are also possible to run Sunday are Group 3 winner Homeless Songs (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and G1 Moyglare Stud S. victress Discoveries (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), a full-sister to Irish 1000 Guineas scorer Alpha Centuri, also trained by Jessica Harrington. Homeless Song, tackling a mile for the first time, may sidestep Sunday's race in favor of the French equivalent May 15. However, one likely to favour of staying local rather than a trip to ParisLongchamp is G3 Fred Darling S. winner Wild Beauty (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who is Godolphin's sole representative in the race.

Represented by his first Classic runner, James Ferguson is on course to saddle G3 Prestige S. scorer Mise En Scene (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}), fourth in the Fillies' Mile over the 1000 Guineas track and trip, before running down the field when making the trip to Del Mar for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

David Redvers, racing manager for Qatar Racing, who own the filly, explained, “She was possibly unlucky not to finish second at Newmarket. If she finished second, she would be among favouritism at the moment.”

“The race didn't work out at all for her in the Breeders' Cup. She was poorly drawn, went forward, was pushed wide and the whole thing was a non-event.”

Mise En Scene, currently an 11-1 chance with Coral for the Guineas, will be reunited with Cieren Fallon.

“Oisin Murphy rode her in a piece of work on Tuesday morning and was delighted with her,” he said. “She seems to have come forward very well. She hardly blew a candle out afterwards and didn't get out of second gear, apparently,” added Redvers.

“We know she handles Newmarket and a straight mile should not provoke any problems at all. You never know until fillies run how they are going to go.”

“Physically and mentally, she has appeared to have done extremely well and we can only hope and keep our fingers crossed that she gets a bit of luck in running and proves how good she is.”

Malavath (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), runner-up on Breeders' Cup day last fall, bested Zellie (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) when they met in Deauville's G3 Prix Imprudence on heavy ground last month and the duo could meet again. Tom Marquand gets the call on the latter.

Also included in the Classic lineup are G3 Nell Gwyn S. heroine Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}), who bids to give trainer George Boughey his first Classic success, Hello You (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), and recent maiden winner Ameynah (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}).

 

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