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Son of Ghanaati Stars at Newmarket

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday’s Insights features a son of Classic heroine Ghanaati (Giant’s Causeway).

1.35 Newmarket, Novice, £6,900, 2yo, c/g, 7fT
MUTASAABEQ (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) is the latest progeny out of Shadwell’s G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Coronation S. heroine Ghanaati (Giant’s Causeway) who debuts for the Charlie Hills stable. The March-foaled homebred colt is met by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s fellow newcomer Dubawi Sands (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), a Roger Varian-trained half-brother to another Classic winner at this venue in Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}), and George Strawbridge’s Sevenal (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), a John Gosden-trained son of the G1 Prix de Diane heroine Latice (Ire) (Inchinor {GB}).
5.45 Kempton, Novice, £6,300, 2yo, f, 7f (AWT)
MALATHAAT (IRE) (Frankel {GB}) is another notable Shadwell newcomer on the day, being a half-sister to last year’s G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial winner and G1 Epsom Derby fourth Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}). Richard Hannon introduces the €500,000 Goffs Orby graduate, whose dam is the smart Sweepstake (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) from the family of Zoffany (Ire).

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Enable: One For The Ages

On most mornings there are more than 2,000 horses being exercised on Newmarket Heath, Britain’s epicentre of the Thoroughbred industry.

Plenty of them will end up as minor winners and a decent number of stakes winners will progress from the blustery East Anglian acres of turf to sun-drenched winner’s enclosures across England and beyond. Every now and then a champion will emerge.

It is perhaps a term used too liberally. Each year there’s a champion 2-year-old, champion 3-year-old, champion stayer, champion sprinter. To call Enable (GB) a champion doesn’t really begin to do her justice.

Just months after Frankel (GB) strode up Warren Hill for the final time in October 2012, Juddmonte sent Concentric (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) on a 30-minute journey from Newmarket to Royston to be covered by his old rival Nathaniel (Ire). It would have been almost too indulgent to imagine that Newmarket could become home to another Thoroughbred of such alluring presence so soon after Frankel’s retirement, let alone one emerging from the same stud. But, by the summer of 2017, the foal resulting from that mating had started to write her own exciting chapter in the history of Juddmonte Farms.

Thunder and lightning announced Enable on the world stage when she stormed to the first of her 11 Group/Grade 1 victories as the rain lashed down on Epsom. To the Oaks, she added the Irish and Yorkshire versions and, in a stellar 3-year-old season, won her first of three King Georges and first of two Arcs. For many owner-breeders that would have been more than enough to ensure that she was hastened to stud to start work on the next generation.

Happily, for Enable’s growing legion of fans, this temptation was resisted for three years running. For keeping his great mare in training to the age of six, all who love racing owe Prince Khalid a huge debt of gratitude.

Enable more than upheld her side of the bargain. With each passing year she grew more statuesque, clearly thriving on her routine of emerging from John Gosden’s Clarehaven stable at the end of Newmarket’s Bury Road, either crossing the road for easy cantering days on Warren Hill, or heading away from town for more testing work mornings on the Al Bahathri or the Limekilns.

It is too easy to anthropomorphise horses but in watching Enable make her casual saunters to and from the gallops of a morning, a fanciful mind could interpret the air of regal serenity as her knowing that she was simply better than every other horse she passed. In truth, it is more that physical exertion came much more easily to her than to most and, generally, a racehorse who finds work easy is one who is at ease with life.

As Enable’s reputation grew, so must the pressure have increased on those closest to her. With John Gosden as her trainer the mare had the perfect statesmanlike spokesman to deliver tantalising updates on her training along with insights to her character. “She’ll tell me,” he said often. A wise man taking his lead from a powerful female.

Enable’s competitive froideur was very much in contrast to that of the jockey who rode her in all bar her first two races. But every good double act needs a flamboyant showman and there is no-one better to assume that role than Frankie Dettori.

The one sad footnote to an extraordinary story is that its final act came in the year of a global pandemic. Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on the world but within our own small racing hub, it was a cruel twist indeed that Enable’s final four runs took place in front of a handful of raceday officials, owners and trainers. If ever there was a horse who deserved to bow out—win or lose—with the roar of an adoring crowd ringing in her enormous ears it was Enable.

Over the last few weeks of sales, a growing number of yearlings have been signed up to join Clarehaven, not to mention the blue-blooded homebreds who will be added to Gosden’s books in the months to come. Boxes will be filled and new champions will emerge, but it is nigh on impossible to replace a horse for the ages.

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Future Champions on Display at Newmarket

Following Friday’s G1 Fillies’ Mile victory of Pretty Gorgeous (Fr) (Lawman {Fr}), Joseph O’Brien could be celebrating a notable Newmarket double on Saturday if fellow TDN Rising Star Thunder Moon (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) can provide the stable with further glory in the G1 Darley Dewhurst S. Showing an impressive surge of acceleration to upstage the re-opposing Ballydoyle pair Wembley (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) in The Curragh’s G1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National S. over this seven-furlong trip Sept. 13, Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez’s bay appears the main threat to the British-trained juveniles in the feature of Future Champions Day. “Hopefully the ground dries out as much as possible and we’ll see what happens,” Joseph said. “We were delighted with him at the Curragh and he’s been in good form since.”

Richard Hannon holds a strong hand with Michael Pescod’s Chindit (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) looking his strongest chance after his defeat of TDN Rising Star Albasheer (Ire) (Shamardal) in Doncaster’s G2 Champagne S. Sept. 12 but Julie Wood’s Etonian (Ire) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) remains unbeaten and an unknown quantity. His two successes at Sandown include the Aug. 23 G3 Solario S.

Hannon said of the duo, “Both horses are fit and well and good to go. We’ve not managed to win the Dewhurst yet, so let’s hope this is our chance. Chindit’s last bit of work with a couple of older horses was very good for a two-year-old. He seems in very good form. Etonian has done nothing wrong either. It’s a shame we have to run them against each other really, but this is the right race for both horses and the Dewhurst is always the best two-year-old race of the year.”

Jim Crowley has picked Shadwell’s supplemented Sept. 19 G2 Mill Reef S. scorer Alkumait (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) over Albasheer and Alkumait’s trainer Marcus Tregoning said, “I think he’ll stay seven furlongs fine. I suppose seven furlongs in soft ground makes it more of a test, but Showcasing’s progeny are versatile. He’ll give himself every chance of getting the trip because he settles well, or at least he did at Newbury, and if he settles as well again, I can’t see seven being a problem. I think Chindit might be the one to beat. He looked tough at Doncaster, he had to battle but came through it well. It’s the right race for us, though, and I’m pleased he’s running.”

Of Albasheer, trainer Owen Burrows said, “I’ve been happy with him since Doncaster. He did his last proper piece of work on Saturday and had a breeze midweek. He is inexperienced and this will be different for him. I’d like to think wherever Chindit finishes, we would be bang there with him–whether or not that is good enough to win, time will tell. On his pedigree he should get a mile next year and we will look to go down that route. God-willing he is good enough to be talked as a Guineas horse, but we will learn a lot more on Saturday.”

The typically strong Irish challenge is backed up by Jessica Harrington’s Sept. 12 G2 Champions Juvenile winner Cadillac (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), while Jim Bolger has enjoyed five successes here and he saddles a fascinating contender in Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}). He won his sole start in the first race of the Irish Flat turf season at Naas Mar. 23, but his owner, breeder and trainer is unconcerned about the lengthy absence.

“He hasn’t run because he started to grow–he’s grown two inches since March and I didn’t want to push him,” he explained. “That’s all settled down now. He’s been fine since the beginning of August and we’ve had an uninterrupted preparation since. I thought it would be good to get him away before the end of the year. I think he’ll go on any ground.”

Newmarket’s pattern-race action kicks off with the G3 Godolphin Flying Start Zetland S. for juveniles over 10 furlongs and Aidan O’Brien saddles an intriguing contender in Moyglare Stud, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor’s Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Off the mark on debut over an extended mile at Galway Sept. 8, the full-brother to the dual G1 Irish St Leger heroine Search For a Song (Ire) and half-brother to Free Eagle (Ire) has ideal credentials for this stamina test. “He seems to have come out of his first race well, he was very green the first day and we’ve been happy with him since,” the Ballydoyle handler said. “We always thought he would get much further than a mile, so the step up in trip shouldn’t worry him.” Two notably-bred nursery winners in Khalid Abdullah’s Sept. 27 Nottingham scorer Fabilis (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Ballylinch Stud and Aquis Farm’s Sept. 12 Doncaster winner Lone Eagle (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) offer fascinating opposition from the Ralph Beckett and Martyn Meade stables respectively.

In the G3 Emirates Autumn S. over a mile, there is another leading Ballydoyle contender in the Aug. 6 G3 Tyros S. and Sept. 12 G2 Champions Juvenile S. runner-up Van Gogh (American Pharoah), who enjoyed a confidence-boosting maiden success at The Curragh Sept. 27. “We think he should benefit from getting his head in front, he’s a horse that is maturing and improving every month,” Aidan O’Brien commented. In a fascinating line-up, Shadwell’s TDN Rising Star Akmaam (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) comes in on the back of his impressive winning debut over seven furlongs at Ascot Sept. 5 while Khalid Abdullah’s Maximal (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) bids to build on a novice win over this trip at Sandown Sept. 11. He was previously runner-up to Godolphin’s One Ruler (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) at that track Aug. 23 and the latter’s trainer Charlie Appleby also saddles the Aug. 15 Listed Washington Singer S. runner-up Dhahabi (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). “One Ruler put up a solid performance [when subsequently third in the Listed Flying Scotsman S.] at Doncaster, when he was slightly unlucky, and we feel that the step up to a mile will see further improvement,” he said. “Dhahabi also ran to a nice level at Newbury and has been crying out for a step up in distance. We are hoping that both colts can be very competitive at this level.”

Another TDN Rising Star takes to the Suffolk venue in The Niarchos Family’s Highest Ground (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), who has not been seen since finishing second in York’s G2 Dante S. July 9 but who will be closely followed in the nine-furlong G3 Darley S. “There’s been no major issue, he just needed a bit of time,” the owner-breeders’ racing manager Alan Cooper explained. “He’s in fine fettle. It looks a very competitive race, so hopefully he’ll run well. I would imagine this will be his final run of the year, but we haven’t really discussed it. We’ll see how he performs this weekend and make a plan afterwards.” John Gosden opts to shorten up Qatar Racing and Watership Down Stud’s TDN Rising Star Darain (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) following his fifth placing in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York Aug. 19. At Chantilly, the six-furlong G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte sees a clash between Alain Jathiere’s impressive Sept .18 G3 Prix Eclipse scorer Plainchant (Fr) (Gregorian {Ire}), the Wertheimers’ Sept. 3 G3 Prix d’Arenberg winner Kalahara (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Tanguy Moreux’s Go Athletico (Fr) (Goken {Fr}) who beat the subsequent G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere hero Sealiway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) in the seven-furlong G3 Prix la Rochette at ParisLongchamp Sept. 6.

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O’Brien Apologizes, BHA To Investigate Equine Mix-Up In Friday’s Fillies’ Mile

Trainer Aidan O'Brien has issued a public apology after a mix-up occurred in Friday's Fillies' Mile at Newmarket, reports the Racing Post. The Ballydoyle master's two entrants, Snowfall and Mother Earth, carried each other's numbers and intended jockeys.

Snowfall, reported to have finished third under James Doyle, actually finished eighth under William Buick.

“I contacted the BHA straight away and let them know what is after happening,” O'Brien told racingpost.com, adding that he made the call after watching the race on delay. “We have a team based in England these days because of the coronavirus restrictions, so the problem is the lads that are with the horses at home can't always go racing with them.”

“The BHA stewards have been made aware of a potential issue regarding the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket today which may have resulted in the incorrect rider and number cloths being carried by the two horses trained by Aidan O'Brien,” reads a statement from the British Horseracing Authority. “A stewards' inquiry will be held on the racecourse tomorrow to consider all of the relevant evidence and determine the course of events and what action needs to be taken.”