Burke Looking Forward With Fallen Angel After Cancer Fight

The flooded fields that line the approach to Spigot Lodge might suggest differently, but spring has finally arrived in Middleham and that can only mean one thing in these parts.

On Good Friday, as tradition dictates, a handful of the town's racing stables will invite the public in for a look behind the scenes as part of the annual Middleham Open Day, organised by Racing Welfare. Spigot Lodge promises to be the first port of call for many visitors, with trainer Karl Burke expecting to welcome between 200-300 people during the course of the morning.

Hoping to beat the rush, the TDN descends on Spigot Lodge the week before the Middleham Open Day, but already Burke is a man in high demand. Having welcomed David Craig and the Sky Sports Racing cameras to film a feature the previous morning, today our visit clashes with that of Derek 'Tommo' Thompson, the veteran broadcaster and commentator who warmly greets all comers in the now-customary fashion, “Are you well?”

Allowing Tommo first crack at Burke provides the opportunity for a quick tour of the stable yard, giving just a taste of why Spigot Lodge is proving such a popular destination with us media folk as the start of the Flat season proper looms on the horizon. In every corner you look there's a familiar name, from the hard-knocking older sprinter that is Spycatcher (Ire) (Vadamos {Fr}) to the exciting three-year-old Classic contender that is Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}).

Put simply, Burke has never assembled a stronger team of horses, across all departments, than the one in his care right now, certainly on the evidence of last year when he celebrated career-best figures in Britain, with 119 winners and £3,130,725 in total earnings.

“And if you count the European money earnings it was close to £4 million,” Burke points out as he pulls up a stool in the kitchen after bidding farewell to Tommo, ready to reflect on a record-breaking year for the team in 2023 and to look ahead to what 2024 might have in store.

“I never ever thought we'd get to those sorts of figures,” he adds. “I think the only blank month we had last year was March. We didn't have a winner in March, but apart from that we had a great all-weather season and it just followed on through the year.”

Already this year Burke is ahead of where he was at the same stage in 2023, with 12 winners on the board–including a first of the season on turf when Liamarty Dreams (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) scored at Doncaster on Sunday–compared to 10 in the first three months of last year.

The big cards are all still to be played, of course, but the omens are certainly good ahead of what promises to be another successful year for the team. Happily, Burke can also look forward to taking a front row seat in the coming months having returned to familiar surroundings in recent days, making his first appearances on a racecourse since last summer.

In a year when Burke's powerful string rose to virtually every challenge thrown at them in 2023, their trainer was forced to watch on from afar as he fought his own battle with illness, out of the public eye as the likes of Fallen Angel did their bit to keep his name in lights.

“Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with cancer just before Royal Ascot last year,” Burke recalls. “I didn't have any symptoms or anything. I had a routine test and they found it, luckily. They were able to get me in and operated on in early-July, so I haven't been racing since then really.

“I was just getting over the operation, which was fairly severe, and then they wanted me to have a course of chemo as a belts-and-braces job. That took me up to Christmas time, so it hasn't been easy, but we've got a great team here and things ticked along nicely.”

When he felt up to it, the day-to-day routine of a trainer's existence was a huge comfort to Burke during his illness, simply being around the animals to which he's devoted over 30 years of his life in this profession.

Burke's soft spot for Fallen Angel is certainly clear for all to see, with the smile coming easily to him when he's asked to pose for a picture with the grey filly who ended the stable's four-year wait for a Group 1 winner when landing the Moyglare Stud S. at the Curragh last September. A second in the space of six weeks then came along when Poptronic (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) caused a 22/1 upset in the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. at Ascot.

That proved to be Poptronic's swansong for the stable, later being sold for 1.4 million gns at the Tattersalls December Mares' Sale, but Burke need look no further for a flagbearer this year than Fallen Angel, who is quickly having to get used to all the media attention that comes with being one of the best fillies of her generation.

 

 

“There were always high hopes for her and she was a lovely stamp of a filly,” Burke says of Steve Parkin's homebred. “And she's out of a good mare, Agnes Stewart, who was a Group 2 winner. You never can say you're definitely going to win a Group 1, but she just improved all the way through.”

Expressing his belief that Fallen Angel should still be unbeaten, Burke adds, “Even when she got beat at Sandown, Danny [Tudhope, jockey] came in and was kicking himself that he didn't make more use of her because she stays very well. She'd always been quite a strong traveller and he was just trying to teach her by holding on to her a little bit, but I think she probably would have won that day as well if we'd kicked her in the belly a bit earlier.”

Fallen Angel made no mistake on her next two starts, first winning the G3 Sweet Solera S. at Newmarket and then following up in very similar fashion when making the breakthrough at the top level at the Curragh, still appearing full of running at the line as she fought off the speedy Vespertilio (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) to win by a length and a quarter.

Sure to be suited by stepping up to a mile, Fallen Angel now has the G1 Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday, May 5, firmly in her sights, attempting to provide her trainer with a first British Classic success in a race that looks a whole lot more winnable following the news of the likely defection of Aidan O'Brien's Opera Singer (Justify)–not that Burke was afraid of going head-to-head with the winter favourite for the race.

“I was looking forward to taking on Opera Singer,” he reveals. “Darnation ran against her on fast ground in France, which Darnation wouldn't want, and we were still upsides her a furlong and a half out. I know where Fallen Angel is with her [Darnation] on fast ground. Darnation is very much a soft-ground filly, so I didn't think for a minute that Opera Singer was unbeatable.

“There will be plenty of horses that pop their heads up above the parapet from now until Guineas day. I'm sure there are a few horses lurking around that are going to show improved form and will be challenging us. My main aim is to get her there in one piece and, hopefully, that's what we'll do.”

Fallen Angel is set for a racecourse gallop at the Craven Meeting which Burke hopes will put her spot on for the 1,000 Guineas, while Darnation (Too Darn Hot {GB}) could also come into the reckoning for that race if conditions fall in her favour. According to her trainer, she isn't one to underestimate, either, in the event that that happens.

“I'm sure that on soft or heavy ground, she's going to be a handful for any horse,” Burke says of the filly who counted the G2 May Hill S. at Doncaster amongst her three wins last season. “A lot of horses just can't manage that ground, but she seems to thrive on it.

“She carried a little niggle all of last season and I think that's one of the reasons why she didn't perform on firmer ground. But she's come through that and she's working nicely. I'm not sure what the plan is–it will be dictated by the ground really. It was in my mind to go for one of the trials if it came up heavy, but there's not a mile trial for fillies without going up to France and I don't really want to do that with her first-time-out.”

 

Darnation | Adam Houghton

 

One exciting three-year-old at Spigot Lodge who has already been in action in 2024 is the 'TDN Rising Star' Night Raider (Ire). In fact, the quick circuit of the stable yard on this particular morning involves only a brief stop at his empty box, the son of Dark Angel (Ire) already having departed ahead of his run at Southwell that evening.

“It's a big day for him,” says Burke, who later follows Night Raider on the 230-mile round trip to Southwell for his first racecourse visit of the year. “I've just seen him on the horsebox and he's roaring away. He's got that little immaturity still about him, so another day out won't do him any harm. Today, whether he wins easily or is in a battle, the idea is to give him a little squeeze and make him go and stretch in that last furlong.”

As it turns out, Night Raider has absolutely no difficulty dismissing a 93-rated rival from the Charlie Hills stable in that novice event, responding quickly when that little squeeze is applied as he powers clear to win by five lengths.

Unbeaten in two starts, by a cumulative margin of 14 lengths, the feeling remains that we've only scratched the surface of Night Raider's potential. He's clearly held in high regard by Burke, too, with the only uncertainty in his mind being about what to do next ahead of a possible tilt at the G1 Qipco 2,000 Guineas on Saturday, May 4.

“We'll make a decision whether we go for a trial or a racecourse gallop,” he sums up. “The trial is more likely to be the seven-furlong conditions race at Newmarket, for horses that haven't run more than twice. I don't want to try him in the Craven over a mile where there could be cut in the ground and it could turn into a slog. And if we wait for Newbury, it's literally two weeks before the Guineas which is getting close.

“We've got decisions to make, but he's a beautiful horse and the Guineas and the start of the season is not the be-all and end-all for him–he's going to get better and better as the season goes on.”

Burke's Southwell trip might have resembled a return to some sort of normality for the trainer, but he's still finding his feet in certain aspects at home, notably when it comes to getting to grips with the latest intake of juveniles in his care.

“There are a few nice horses out there,” he says of the class of 2024. “I was away for a month in the winter, which I've never done before, and obviously before Christmas I wasn't as on it as I usually would be with having the chemo. But I'm recognising the horses now and seeing how they've developed. I'm just catching up with that and I must admit now that, when I see the string, we've got some lovely fillies out there.”

It was the two-year-olds which underpinned Burke's success last season, making up 68 of the yard's 119 winners in Britain, whilst pocketing nearly £1 million in prize-money. This year the team of juveniles won't be quite so numerically strong, according to Burke, but he still expects to have plenty of early runners despite a less-than-ideal preparation, chiefly because of the exceptionally wet weather the whole country has endured in recent weeks and months.

“We won't have quite as many two-year-olds this time around because we've kept a lot of the nice two-year-olds from last year,” Burke explains. “We have 139 boxes here and we're pretty limited above that, so we had to cut back somewhere and it ended up being the two-year-olds. But we seem to have a nice bunch and still good numbers.

“I've been saying to a few people that I felt the three-year-olds and older horses were probably a week or two ahead of where we'd usually be with them, but we're probably a week or two behind with the two-year-olds. We're probably better off having it that way round, because there are loads of races for the two-year-olds and they've got plenty of time.”

Pinatubo (Ire) is a first-season sire expected to waste no time in having two-year-old winners in 2024 and Burke is excited to see what his half-brother to Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) can do having been sent to Spigot Lodge by Parkin. “He looks a lovely colt,” says the trainer. “There's a lot of scope about him–a lot more scope than Dramatised had.”

Burke also puts in a positive word for a filly by Sergei Prokofiev, but it's another Whitsbury Manor Stud resident who is the main subject of his affections, namely Havana Grey (GB), whom he trained to win the G1 Flying Five S. back in 2018.

“It's been unbelievable really,” Burke says of the success Havana Grey has enjoyed at stud, notably with the dual Group 1-winning two-year-old Vandeek (GB), the star of his second crop. “And fair play to Ed Harper from Whitsbury. When we were looking to try and sell him, we had a price in our heads, us and the owners. All the big studs came over to see him and liked him, but they didn't want to pay the price that we had in mind. We stuck to our guns and fair play to Ed. He said, 'I think I'm paying plenty for him, but I want him.'

“His constitution was brilliant,” Burke adds of Havana Grey. “All he did was eat and sleep and he was a very sound, tough horse. I think he's passing on that toughness to his progeny.”

As for the current inmates at Spigot Lodge, there is arguably no finer embodiment of toughness than the six-year-old Spycatcher, who did his trainer proud in 2023 when winning the G3 Prix de Ris-Orangis at Deauville before being beaten just a short head when bidding for a first Group 1 success in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at the same venue.

 

Spycatcher | Adam Houghton

 

Spycatcher, who occupies the box that was once home to Burke's multiple Group 1 winner Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), will be back for more in 2024 with the aim of breaking his top-level duck, so too the four-year-olds Flight Plan (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) and Royal Rhyme (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), both of whom acquitted themselves well in good company last season.

There's certainly plenty to be excited about if you're planning a visit to Spigot Lodge during the Middleham Open Day, albeit Burke's own enjoyment of the event isn't necessarily what it once was since the introduction of racing on Good Friday.

“We've got three meetings, so we're going to be stretched to the limit,” he explains. “We've had to limit our opening window to two and a half hours, because we just can't do it any other way. We're going to have lads everywhere and horses travelling. You can't be loading horses up when you've got 200-300 people walking around.

“It's unfortunate because it does have a place. It's a good selling point to try and get new blood into the game, but it certainly hasn't made it easier with so much racing on Good Friday.”

It's a message that rings especially true at a time when the fixture list seems to grow year-on-year, despite a general decline in foal crops in Britain, not to mention the increase in the number of horses being bought to race overseas.

It provides an interesting talking point on which to end the chat with Burke, who clearly remains as passionate as ever about a sport which means everything to him and his family, ably assisted at Spigot Lodge by wife Elaine and daughters Kelly and Lucy.

“I think that's a big problem [the loss of horses overseas] and I don't know how you halt that,” he says. “Obviously, prize-money comes into it, but we're so far behind as a country on prize-money compared to a lot of the other major racing nations that we're never going to catch them up.

“Any increase in prize-money will help, but how do you go about persuading people not to sell their horses? I think in a perverse sort of way, while the Middle East programme that's there doesn't really help British racing, there's a case for owners keeping those good middle-distance horses and high-class sprinters and going out in the winter to the Middle East to compete for that prize-money.

“That's probably as good a selling point as any. The likes of Richard Fahey have obviously had great success, so the more that they build their programme, it will probably help to a degree to persuade owners in Britain to keep those horses.”

The post Burke Looking Forward With Fallen Angel After Cancer Fight appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Dark Angel’s Night Raider Another TDN Rising Star

Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics have live Guineas contenders of both sexes in 2024 as the Karl Burke-trained Night Raider (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}–Dorraar {Ire}, by Shamardal) produced a sensational display to obtain TDN Rising Star status at Southwell on Wednesday evening. Off the mark in style by nine lengths this track and seven-furlong trip on debut in December, the 1-4 favourite tanked his way to the front under Danny Tudhope from the outset. Chased entering the straight by his only serious rival, last year's G3 Acomb S. fifth Cogitate (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), the 155,000gns Tatts December Foal purchase simply extended away to score by five lengths, registering a penultimate split of 10.98 and a final three-furlong sectional of 34.12 in the process.
Burke, who is preparing the owner's G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) for the May 5 G1 1000 Guineas, is planning on sending Night Raider for the previous day's Newmarket Classic. “He's a horse of huge potential, we know that and he's not fully wound up by any stretch of the imagination,” he said of the half-brother to Farhh's G3 Palace House S.-winning first-season sire Far Above (Ire).
“His weight was identical to first time out and all of ours improve for their first time. Nadir, who leads him up, said he has taken more of a blow tonight than he did the first time. He was a second-and-a-half faster this time and I don't know if that is down to ability or the track riding faster. The Guineas isn't the be all and end all for him and he's a horse with a big future.”
“He may have been on grass at the beginning of his two-year-old career, but he certainly wouldn't have been on grass in the last 10 months or so. The idea was to go to the Guineas with a racecourse gallop at the Craven meeting–I don't want to go a mile or go for the Craven itself and if we went for the seven-furlong race at Newbury [the Greenham], that only gives us two weeks before the Guineas–or there is a seven-furlong conditions race for horses that haven't run more than twice. I have to speak to connections, but if we do go anywhere, I would be pointing that way.”
“Danny [Tudhope] just said there he could do with another run. He's still green in front and was lugging away up the straight. Another run is probably the right way to go. Laurens was pretty good in her first two runs, but he's a lovely horse with a great temperament and there's a lot of scope there, so we've just got to look after him, do the right thing by him and hopefully he reaches his full potential.”
Night Raider, who was one of colleague Adam Houghton's Ten 2024 Three-Year-Olds To Follow, is the sixth TDN Rising Star for Dark Angel. The grey's best Rising Star so far is G1 Phoenix S. runner-up Dr Zempf (GB). The winner is out of a granddaughter of the G2 Ribblesdale S. scorer and G1 Oaks, G1 Irish Oaks and GI Flower Bowl Invitational-placed Bahr (GB) (Generous {Ire}). That links him to the Group 1-winning mother and son Nahrain (GB) (Selkirk) and Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), with the latter also registering a wide-margin debut success before being thrown straight into the deep end. Also in the pedigree is the aforementioned talented sprinter Far Above, whose career was cut short by injury, and the precocious and tough Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) who captured the G2 Railway S. and G3 Pavilion S. and was also placed in the G1 Phoenix S. and GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Dorraar's 2-year-old full-brother to the winner is catalogued in next month's Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up.
1st-Southwell, £11,400, Novice, 3-20, 3yo/up, 7f 14y (AWT), 1:26.77, st.
NIGHT RAIDER (IRE), c, 3, by Dark Angel (Ire)
     1st Dam: Dorraar (Ire), by Shamardal
     2nd Dam: Dorrati, by Dubai Millennium (GB)
     3rd Dam: Bahr (GB), by Generous (Ire)
Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $12,306. O-Clipper; B-Linden Bloodstock Ltd (IRE); T-Karl Burke. *155,000gns Wlg '21 TADEWE. **1/2 to Far Above (Ire) (Farhh {GB}), GSW-Eng, SW-Fr. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Ten Three-Year-Olds To Follow in 2024

Adam Houghton picks out 10 once-raced three-year-olds with the potential to make an impact in Pattern races in 2024.

INISHERIN (GB), c, 3, by Shamardal
1st Dam: Ajman Princess (Ire), by Teofilo (Ire)
2nd Dam: Reem Three (GB), by Mark Of Esteem (Ire)
3rd Dam: Jumaireyah (GB), by Fairy King
Owner: Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum
Breeder: Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum
Trainer: Kevin Ryan

Bred by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, Inisherin is the second foal out of the G1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Ajman Princess (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), one of seven black-type performers and six black-type winners for the remarkable Mark Of Esteem (Ire) mare Reem Three (GB). Ajman Princess's siblings include the G1 Queen Anne S. winner Triple Time (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and G2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein winner Ostilio (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), plus the unraced Rosaline (Ire), a full-sister to Ostilio who is perhaps best known as the dam of last year's G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}). Inisherin didn't scale anything like the same heights as Rosallion as a two-year-old, but his sole run when finishing second in a Newmarket maiden in September was full of promise, faring best of the newcomers as he passed the post just half a length behind Bellum Justum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who was able to put his experience to good use on his fourth start. G1 Irish 2000 Guineas entry Inisherin should stay at least 10 furlongs and it will be no surprise if he becomes just the latest in a long line of black-type performers in his illustrious family.

LOVE DYNASTY (FR), f, 3, by Dubawi (Ire)
1st Dam: Geisha Girl (Ire), by Galileo (Ire)
2nd Dam: Multicolour Wave (Ire), by Rainbow Quest
3rd Dam: Echoes (Fr), by Niniski
Owner: Clipper Logistics
Breeder: Rabbah Bloodstock Limited
Trainer: William Haggas

Bought for 190,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Love Dynasty sports the familiar Clipper Logistics colours and did so with distinction when making a winning debut in a seven-furlong fillies' novice event at Newmarket in November. In a race run in very testing conditions, Love Dynasty could hardly have created a better impression as she tanked into contention from the rear of the field before drawing right away in the final furlong to win by two and a half lengths with plenty in hand. By Dubawi (Ire) and out of the unraced Galileo (Ire) mare Geisha Girl (Ire), Love Dynasty is thus bred on the same cross as the multiple Group 1 winners Ghaiyyath (Ire) and Night Of Thunder (Ire). For good measure, Geisha Girl is a half-sister to the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Elusive Wave (Ire) (Elusive City) and it's not out of the question that Love Dynasty could follow in that one's footsteps by developing into a Classic contender herself, such was the promise of that debut victory in the autumn.

MAP OF STARS (GB), c, 3, by Sea The Stars (Ire)
1st Dam: Bateel (Ire), by Dubawi (Ire)
2nd Dam: Attractive Crown, by Chief's Crown
3rd Dam: Attirance (Fr), by Crowned Prince
Owner: Al Asayl France
Breeder: Al Asayl France
Trainer: Francis-Henri Graffard

Al Asayl France's homebred Map Of Stars is the second foal out of the Dubawi (Ire) mare Bateel (Ire), a classy performer who won the Listed Fred Archer S. at Newmarket as a four-year-old when trained in Britain by David Simcock. She later joined the Francis-Henri Graffard stable and became a prolific pattern-race winner in France where her wins included the G1 Prix Vermeille and G2 Prix de Pomone as a five-year-old and the G2 Prix Corrida as a six-year-old. By Sea The Stars (Ire), a trusty source of high-class middle-distance performers, Map Of Stars is bred more for stamina than speed–his dam was Group 3-placed over nearly two miles–and he was never stronger than at the finish when powering home to beat his fellow newcomers in a nine-furlong maiden at Longchamp in October, ultimately winning by a length. Graffard looks to have another smart one on his hands in this colt and a tilt at something like the G1 Prix du Jockey Club could well be on the cards if he progresses as expected during the coming months.

 

 

MEYDAAN (IRE), c, 3, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Nezwaah (GB), by Dubawi (Ire)
2nd Dam: Ferdoos (GB), by Dansili (GB)
3rd Dam: Blaze Of Colour (GB), by Rainbow Quest
Owner: Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum
Breeder: Godolphin
Trainer: Simon and Ed Crisford

Late-season maidens run on the all-weather at Newcastle are always worth a second look these days, a breeding ground of future champions and where the likes of Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) and Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) gained their first career wins. Meydaan clearly has a long way to go before we can start mentioning him in that illustrious company, but he made the best possible start to his career when winning a 10-furlong maiden at Gosforth Park in November, just needing to be pushed out by Jack Mitchell to win by a length and three-quarters. Simon and Ed Crisford won the same race in 2022 with Chesspiece (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire})–subsequently Group 3-placed as a three-year-old–and Meydaan looks another black-type performer for the stable in the making, in keeping with his regal breeding. By Frankel (GB) and out of the Dubawi (Ire) mare Nezwaah (GB)–who won the G1 Pretty Polly S. as a four-year-old–Meydaan is bred on the same cross as Classic winners Adayar (Ire) and Homeless Songs (Ire), plus the multiple Group 1 hero Mostahdaf (Ire).

 

 

NIGHT RAIDER (IRE), c, 3, by Dark Angel (Ire)
1st Dam: Dorraar (Ire), by Shamardal
2nd Dam: Dorrati, by Dubai Millennium (GB)
3rd Dam: Bahr (GB), by Generous (Ire)
Owner: Clipper Logistics
Breeder: Linden Bloodstock Ltd
Trainer: Karl Burke

Few all-weather winners during the winter raised as many eyebrows as Night Raider, who could hardly have been more impressive when running away with a seven-furlong novice event on his debut at Southwell in December, easing clear throughout the final furlong, under a motionless Danny Tudhope, to win by nine lengths. Together with G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) and the aforementioned Love Dynasty, Night Raider features in an exciting group of three-year-olds the Clippers Logistics team has put together for 2024 having been brought into the fold when bought for 155,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale. He is the fourth foal out of the winning Shamardal mare Dorraar (Ire), who now has a record of three winners from as many runners, with the others including the G3 Palace House S. winner Far Above (Ire) (Farhh {GB}). Far Above was an out-and-out sprinter–and so too are most of the better horses produced by Dark Angel (Ire)–but G1 Irish 2000 Guineas entry Night Raider should stay a mile and isn't one to underestimate when he steps up in grade.

 

 

PURPLE LILY (IRE), f, 3, by Calyx (GB)
1st Dam: Boca Raton (Ire), by Approve (Ire)
2nd Dam: Kaaba (GB), by Darshaan (GB)
3rd Dam: Konigsalpen (Ger), by Second Set (Ire)
Owner: Zinlo Syndicate
Breeder: B O'Neill
Trainer: Paddy Twomey

Purple Lily made her debut at the Galway Festival in August, lining up in what is typically one of the strongest fillies' maidens run in Ireland all year, with Classic winners such as Legatissimo (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), Hermosa (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) all having got off the mark in the race in the last decade. Sent off favourite against some well-credentialed runners from the stables of Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger, Aidan O'Brien and Joseph O'Brien, Purple Lily is clearly held in some regard and her connections will have been pleased by what they saw in the race itself as she overcame greenness to run out a ready winner, finishing strongly once the penny dropped to beat Weld's subsequent winner Tannola (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}) by a neck. A first-crop daughter of Calyx (GB) and out of a half-sister to the G1 Irish Oaks third Lady's Secret (Ire) (Alzao), Purple Lily was a €155,000-purchase at the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-up Sale having previously sold for €17,500 as a foal and €24,000 as a yearling. She's entered in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas and G1 Irish Oaks and her future looks very bright indeed for the Paddy Twomey yard which continues to go from strength to strength.

 

 

ROADSHOW (IRE), c, 3, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Acapulco, by Scat Daddy
2nd Dam: Global Finance, by End Sweep
3rd Dam: Friendly Wave, by Pentelicus
Owner: Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor and Mrs John Magnier
Breeder: Coolmore Stud
Trainer: Andre Fabre

Coolmore homebred Roadshow is the second runner out of Wesley Ward's flying filly Acapulco (Scat Daddy), who memorably won the G2 Queen Mary S. before filling the runner-up spot when taking on older horses in the G1 Nunthorpe S. as a two-year-old. Acapulco later joined Aidan O'Brien for whom she won her only start in the Listed Sole Power Sprint S. as a four-year-old before retiring to the paddocks. Acapulco's first runner, a full-sister to Roadshow named So Beautiful (Ire), also went into training at Ballydoyle but failed to get off the mark in four starts. Roadshow, on the other hand, had little trouble in opening his account at the first attempt for Andre Fabre, easily winning a maiden at Saint-Cloud in October as he drew clear in the closing stages for a three-and-a-half-length success, with his beaten rivals including the subsequent dual winner Yoox (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). That race was run over seven and a half furlongs and Roadshow will be suited by at least a mile as a three-year-old, like so many sons and daughters of Galileo (Ire) out of sprinting mares. He couldn't be in better hands and will be one to look out for in a Classic trial in the spring.

 

 

RUBIES ARE RED (IRE), f, 3, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Red Evie (Ire), by Intikhab
2nd Dam: Malafemmena (Ire), by Nordico
3rd Dam: Martinova (GB), by Martinmas (GB)
Owner: Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor, Mrs John Magnier and Westerberg
Breeder: Coolmore Stud
Trainer: Aidan O'Brien

The aforementioned Galileo remains on the brink of a major milestone as the sire of 99 individual Group/Grade 1 winners, already having smashed the all-time record of 84 previously held by Danehill. There isn't necessarily a standout candidate among the older horses to take Galileo into three-figures in 2024, so it could come down to a penultimate crop of three-year-olds which includes a whole host of promising sorts, many of whom we've only scratched the surface with. Rubies Are Red is a perfect case in point, a Coolmore homebred out of the G1 Matron S. and G1 Lockinge S. winner Red Evie (Ire) (Intikhab), already the dam of four black-type winners by Galileo, including the GI Breeders' Cup Turf and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Found (Ire) and the G3 Give Thanks S. winner Best In The World (Ire), perhaps best known as the dam of the multiple Classic winner Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). Rubies Are Red caught the eye on her only two-year-old start over a mile at Galway in October, finishing a staying-on third having been hampered at a crucial stage of that fillies' maiden, and she looks the type to leave that form well behind when tackling middle-distances as a three-year-old.

 

 

SONS AND LOVERS (GB), c, 3, by Study Of Man (Ire)
1st Dam: So In Love (GB), by Smart Strike
2nd Dam: Soft Morning (GB), by Pivotal (GB)
3rd Dam: Summer Night (GB), by Nashwan
Owner: Mr and Mrs H Morriss and Miss K Rausing
Breeder: Miss K Rausing
Trainer: Jane Chapple-Hyam

Lanwades Stud resident Study Of Man (Ire) had nine individual winners in Europe from his first crop of juveniles in 2023, headed by the G2 Beresford S. winner Deepone (GB). His progeny can be expected to improve with time and distance given that he raced only once as a two-year-old himself before going on to win the G1 Prix du Jockey Club at three, so it bodes well for the future prospects of Sons And Lovers that he was able to emulate his sire by winning his sole juvenile start, in a seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket in October, despite looking far from the finished article. Sons And Lovers was held up in the early stages and it was only in the final strides that he edged ahead to get the verdict by a head and spring a mild surprise at odds of 33/1. Bred by Kirsten Rausing, the owner of Lanwades, Sons And Lovers was bought by trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam for €40,000 at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale. Rausing retained a share and races the colt in partnership with her friend Hugo Morriss and his late wife Maya, who was at Newmarket for the colt's victory and died the following month. He is out of the Smart Strike (Can) mare So In Love (GB), who was Listed-placed in France on multiple occasions and is herself out of the Listed winner/Group 3-placed Soft Morning (GB) (Pivotal {GB}).

TRUE CYAN (IRE), f, 3, by No Nay Never
1st Dam: Realtra (Ire), by Dark Angel (Ire)
2nd Dam: Devious Diva (Ire), by Dr Devious (Ire)
3rd Dam: Dawn Chorus (Ire), by Mukaddamah
Owner: KHK Racing Ltd
Breeder: Barronstown Stud
Trainer: Roger Varian

The Dark Angel (Ire) mare Realtra (Ire) proved herself a tough and consistent performer over four seasons of racing at a high level, initially with Richard Fahey before joining Roger Varian halfway through her three-year-old campaign. She went on to win six times for Varian, notably landing the G3 Sceptre S. at three before returning to win twice more at that level at five having missed most of her four-year-old season. Realtra's first foal, Divinitus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), failed to win either of her two starts for Andre Fabre, but True Cyan immediately looked a filly cut from the same cloth as her dam when making a successful debut for the Varian yard in a seven-furlong fillies' maiden at Newmarket in September, quickening smartly from rear to win by a length and a half from a pair of next-time-out winners who completed the frame. Sporting the colours of KHK Racing having been bought for £150,000 at the Goffs UK Doncaster Breeze-up Sale, True Cyan has the potential to live up to that price tag and more, with a Guineas trial likely to be her first port of call in the spring.

 

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