Frankel Filly Majestic Glory Chasing Breeders’ Cup Berth In Friday’s Rockfel Stakes

Mrs. Doreen Tabor's Majestic Glory (GB) will bid to complete a hat-trick of wins in Friday's Unibet Rockfel Stakes (G2) for 2-year-old fillies run on Newmarket's Rowley Mile course. The daughter of Frankel (GB) faces nine rivals in the 7-furlong contest, which offers a guaranteed fees-paid berth into the US$1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series is an international series of stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships, which will be held at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, California, on Nov. 5-6.

The Andrew Balding-trained Majestic Glory won at her third attempt in a Novice Stakes at Newmarket's July course and followed up with a win in the RacingTV Profits Back To Racing Sweet Solera Stakes (G3) last month, defeating subsequent Group 1 winner Wild Beauty (GB) into second. Ryan Moore will be on board the filly for the first time on Friday.

Newmarket trainer George Boughey runs two in the race, Oscula (IRE) and Cachet (IRE), with the latter finishing a disappointing seventh, after missing the break, in the Prix d'Aumale (Group 3) at ParisLongchamp in her last start.

Boughey said: “Cachet was unlucky in France, she was slow out of the gate, which she has been the last twice. I think you'll see a different Cachet on Friday. She looks great now.”

Meanwhile, Oscula will be having her eighth start of the season. The daughter of Galileo Gold (GB) won the Prix Six Perfections Sky Sports Racing (G3) at Deauville in August, before finishing third as the 7-5 favorite in the Prix Du Calvados (G2) at the same track last time.

Boughey said: “I think she'll run a massive race. I think she's up to this level. She's got to handle Newmarket, she wouldn't have done a huge amount of work on the track, unlike most of mine, so that's a little bit new to her. Her style of racing should suit it.”

The Ralph Beckett-trained Girl On Film (FR) was an impressive maiden winner on Newmarket's July course in her Aug. 7 debut for owners John and Tanya Gunther. A daughter of Dabirsim (FR), Girl On Film will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.

Also putting an unbeaten record on the line is the Roger Charlton-trained Jumbly (GB), who made it two wins from two starts with a comfortable success on Kempton's All-Weather track on Sept. 3.

Romantic Time (GB) has won three of her last four starts, most recently the Ire Incentive Scheme Dick Poole Fillies' Stakes (G3) at Salisbury, over 6 furlongs. Marco Ghiani, currently leading the Apprentice Jockeys' Championship, takes the ride.

Hello You (IRE), Sunstrike (IRE), Kawida (GB) and Femme Friendly (GB) complete the field.

As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, the Breeders' Cup will pay the entry fees for the winner of the Unibet Rockfel Stakes to start in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, which will be run at 1-mile over the Del Mar turf course. Breeders' Cup will also provide a travel allowance of US$40,000 for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships. The Challenge winner must be nominated to the Breeders' Cup program by the Championships' pre-entry deadline of Oct. 25 to receive the rewards.

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Boughey Full Steam Ahead For Ascot

It is hard to ignore George Boughey at the moment. In only his second full season with a training licence, the 33-year-old is seventh in the British trainers' list by number of winners on 44 for the season. Most impressive of all is his strike-rate of 28%. Of trainers to have had more than 100 runners, only Charlie Appleby ranks higher on 30%, for his 36 winners.

But Boughey's most pleasing moment of the season so far came not from a winner but through the superbly gritty run of his stable star, Mystery Angel (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}), who was second in the Cazoo Oaks having made most of the running. If the trainer and the owners in the Nick Bradley Racing syndicate were already on a high from the victory of Oscula (Ire) (Galileo Gold {Ire}) in the Woodcote S., the opening race of the Epsom meeting, then they were positively floating by the time Mystery Angel crossed the line in the Oaks.

“It was a great day and she has come out of the race incredibly well. She hasn't been ridden yet [since Epsom] as we haven't really got any immediate plans for her so she is just having an easy time, but she is sound and she's eating well,” reports Boughey of the filly who won the listed Pretty Polly S. on the Rowley Mile, just across from where she is trained, before running fourth in the G3 Musidora S. Prior to that, however, she had been well seasoned. 

Mystery Angel graduated from the Craven Breeze-up Sale for what now looks like a bargain price of 22,000gns–almost exactly the amount it cost to supplement her for the Oaks. She ran six times as a 2-year-old, her two victories backed up by three important pieces of black type. The hunt for a stakes win continued through March of this year, when Mystery Angel made two trips to France and finished second in the listed Prix Rose de Mai.

The trainer continues, “She's maturing into the filly that I hoped she'd be. She was a very late withdrawal from the mares' sale last year and a lot of people were wondering why as she isn't really bred to do what she's doing, but she is doing it. There are some nice decisions to make.”

The diminutive daughter of Kodi Bear may not look like an obvious middle-distance type, either physically or on paper, but she apparently has both the heart and mind for the job.

Boughey says, “She's very tough. I was outlining to anyone I spoke to before the Oaks that the thing about her is she has such a good mind. I know it still wasn't really busy at Epsom but she walked into the paddock for the Oaks and it was certainly the biggest day that she has ever seen and she was so relaxed. She lobbed to post and she settled in the race. The plan was to go forward and Ben [Curtis] and I were very confident that she would stay. I know it does't look it to the eye but Nick Bradley sent me the sectionals and she ran the quickest final furlong. Okay, so Frankie [Dettori] was easing up late on on the winner, but she stays a mile and a half well seemingly, and what a fun filly we've got.”

Mystery Angel is by no means the only fun filly in Boughey's Saffron House Stables. He has been winning 2-year-old races at a phenomenal rate this season, and the Woodcote winner Oscula is one who will form part of a formidable juvenile team for next week's Royal Meeting, along with recent impressive Newmarket winner Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, and dual novice winner Beautiful Sunshine (GB) (Ardad {Ire}). The latter is one of a number of smart juveniles the trainer has for Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing, many of whose horses receive their early grounding in Ireland by crack breeze-up consignor Robson Aguiar.

Superior Force (GB) (Ardad {Ire}) is another in that category and could be one of the colts to be Ascot-bound, along with fellow Amo colour-bearer Thunder Love (GB) (Profitable {Ire}) and the treble winner and listed-placed Navello (Ire) (Ivawood {GB}), who races for Fiona Carmichael and Evelyn Yates.

“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pinching myself,” says Boughey of his season to date. “It's extraordinary what's going on at the moment. We had a team of horses and you kind of evaluate them in late February when the 2-year-olds start doing a bit more. It was a direct ploy from us to keep buying older horses, and we won a couple of races with unexposed 3-year-olds or 4-year-olds who could be a lot of fun. I think to train a lot of winners you need to keep buying tried horses and that's what we were initially successful with and we won't change the motive there. But, yes, to have had 14 2-year-old winners already–I think it's the most in Europe and I certainly didn't expect that.”

Oscula went straight to Epsom having won well first time out on the similar rolling downland course of Brighton, which was a deliberate test on her trainer's behalf to see if she would be up to the Woodcote challenge.

“It's not an exact science but it's a pretty similar track and to be able to go down the hill and quicken again was useful,” he says. “I didn't expect her to win so cosily but she looks like she's creeping up the ranks. She will more than likely go to the Albany now and she goes there with a single-figure price chance.”

Meanwhile Oscula's stable-mate Beautiful Sunshine is being prepared for the G2 Queen Mary S.

“Beautiful Sunshine was a bit lazy on debut, and she and Superior Force are both by Ardad and they are quite similar in that they have taken a bit of racing to get them going, but Beautiful Sunshine has taken a step forward and she will go to the Queen Mary with a pretty live chance,” says Boughey. “Her work has been good and she has a great mind for it. The 2-year-olds that we are taking to Ascot this year have been pretty professional on debut. They have run professionally, and they have behaved, and I think that's a huge asset to take to Ascot. We had our first Ascot runner last year, Astimegoesby (Ire), and he was a bit of a hooligan in his race before and I slightly feared that might happen. But these ones have very straight minds on them and that's key for a big day like that.”

Navello will arrive at Ascot more seasoned than most of his contemporaries. The colt has had five runs already, starting out at Bath in early April, which turned out to be a good sighter for his subsequent hat-trick at Wolverhampton, Brighton and Chester. Most recently he was third behind the Hugo Palmer-trained Ebro River (Ire) (Galileo Gold {Ire}) in the listed National S. at Sandown.

His trainer notes, “Hugo's horse was obviously very impressive and that goes to the Coventry now so we won't have to take him on, and Navello's speed was slightly blunted by the very soft ground that was drying. I was in more of a sweat than the horse was because it was a very warm evening and it was drying out. Although he won on very soft ground at Chester, I think he kind of won by default because it was very wet ground and he got through it. 

“Navello worked the other morning on quicker ground and he worked very nicely. If we do get quicker ground at Ascot we'll probably see a different horse again. I think the plan at the moment is to go for the Norfolk.”

Navello has been ridden in all his starts by Nicola Currie, who has been determinedly clawing her way back into the limelight after injury derailed her season last year. She has formed a fruitful partnership with Boughey, who also regularly uses apprentice Mark Crehan and the currently injured Rossa Ryan.

“Nicola has been riding out a couple of times a week and driving the long hours at 4am to come and ride for us so it's nice to be able to give her a chance,” Boughey explains. “At the moment she will ride Cachet in the Albany and I would go so far as to say she'll be the top of the pile for my fillies for Ascot. She was very impressive at Newmarket on debut. I don't see why Nicola won't keep the ride–she's ridden her in all her work at home, and she will ride Cachet and Navello which are two quite nice Ascot rides for her.”

He adds, “Rossa was in on Saturday to watch work and he's trying to make it back for Ascot, but even if he doesn't he knows the nice horses are there for him to come back to.”

Ryan is the retained rider for Amo Racing, which has become an increasingly dominant force this season and is currently fifth in the owners' table behind Godolphin, Shadwell, the Coolmore partners and King Power Racing. As Nick Bradley runs his partnerships under different numbers, it is harder to quantify the operation's success in the formal table, but it has already been represented by eight winners this year, as well as two Classic-placed fillies, with the G2 Prix du Calvados winner Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}), who is trained by Richard Fahey, having finished third in the 1000 Guineas. Bradley is now a staunch supporter of the Boughey yard with 12 horses in training there.

“Nick and I speak every day and I think he said in an interview last year that he almost sees himself as an aid to his trainers,” Boughey says. “I know the programme book inside out but I speak to a lot of people about my horses and bouncing ideas off each other can only be beneficial. Nick's great. He's a very bright man and we work pretty closely. He and Amo Racing and my biggest supporters.”

While Mystery Angel will not be among the team for Royal Ascot, there are plans being formulated for her to tackle further big prizes this season, including the G1 Qatar Nassau S. at Glorious Goodwood.

Boughey says of his first Classic runner, “She's very cool and a joy to train. She gets up, eats, sleeps and trains. If we had another one or two like her life would be very easy.”

The post Boughey Full Steam Ahead For Ascot appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Snowfall, Rainfall And An Oaks Day To Savour

EPSOM, UK—It was an Oaks that delivered everything. An emphatic winner, bred in the purple, racing in the purple, representing a trio of the sport's most powerful owners for whom Epsom's famous winner's circle is almost a home from home. 

It was also a record-breaking winning margin by a filly who reminded us just what a loss Deep Impact (Jpn) was, not just to Japan but to breeders worldwide, when he died at the age of 17 in 2019. Next month, a handful of his final small crop of yearlings will be offered at the JRHA Select Sale in Hokkaido. The Coolmore team was among the select number of European breeders who had mares worthy of a trip to Japan, and their globetrotting endeavours have already been rewarded with the 2000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (Jpn). Now, in Snowfall (Jpn), they have a second British Classic winner bred on that same potent cross that blends the two extraordinarily dominant sires of Japan and Europe, Deep Impact and Galileo. 

It should not be forgotten either that last year's Prix de Diane winner Fancy Blue (Ire), is also by Deep Impact and bred in a similar fashion, being out of a sister to another Epsom hero in High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). And from a limited number of runners in Europe, Deep Impact also sired the 2018 Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man (Ire).

For an Oaks to remember, throw in racing's Mr Showbusiness, Frankie Dettori–in theory playing the unfamiliar role of understudy to Ryan Moore aboard the race favourite Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB})–and you have all the glitz required to light up a racecourse even with a limited number of racegoers. The Queen's Stand, usually packed to this rafters for this weekend, was sparsely populated, even with most of those on track having to take refuge indoors from the ceaseless rain which turned the track into a quagmire and brought the Classic field stand-side as they reeled off Tattenham Corner.

Snowfall clearly didn't mind the rainfall as demonstrated by the menacing way she loomed alongside and swiftly overpowered the long-time leader Mystery Angel (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}). But take away the 16-length winner and the terrier-like runner-up, from the determinedly ambitious stable of George Boughey, had plenty of fancy fillies beaten, including the third-placed Divinely (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to Snowfall's dam Best In The World (Ire) and to the brilliant Arc winner Found (Ire). While Snowfall and Divinely would have had the Oaks on their agenda even before they were weaned, it is far to say that it was probably not a race that Noelle Walsh, the breeder of Mystery Angel, had envisaged for her filly. But Boughey has already made people sit up and take notice as he has saddled winner after winner since taking out his licence only last season, and perhaps more should have taken notice of the fact that a syndicate of a very different nature to the Coolmore triumvirate had stumped up £22,500 to supplement Mystery Angel to the Oaks line-up on Monday.

As Snowfall sailed across the line in glorious isolation, Boughey, his great pal and key form ally Sam Haggas, and girlfriend Laura Toller, roared and swung each other around as their filly fought her way home. Their celebrations were every bit as wild  as they would have been for a winner, and in a way she was. For this was a massive result for the stable and for Nick Bradley's racing syndicate on a day which started with yet another impressive juvenile winner for both owner and trainer when Oscula (Ire) (Galileo Gold {Ire}) landed the Woodcote S. on her third start. 

As the Oaks presentation took place in the winner's circle, the celebratory gaggle was joined by Georg von Opel, a huge investor in some of the Coolmore syndicated horses in recent years and part-owner of the fifth-placed Santa Barbara. Just beyond them out on the track where the placed horses unsaddle, Mystery Angel was surrounded by her large, happy band of owners for a photo that will undoubtedly grace plenty of walls. Their investment would have been far smaller but their joy no less confined. 

Just over an hour earlier there had been a similarly pleasing story to the Coronation Cup when Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), who had finished 11th in last year's Derby and third in the St Leger, enjoyed an official coming of age. 

By the admission post-race of his co-owner/breeder Roger Devlin, Pyledriver is not as regally bred as some of those he was taking on, but he has a tenacity akin to Mystery Angel's and only temporarily surrendered the advantage he had gained when bowling into the lead halfway round, before grabbing it back from the imposing favourite Al Aasy (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).

For his jockey Martin Dwyer, who is not among the most fashionable names in the weighing-room, it brought up a hat-trick of Epsom Group 1s that few of his colleagues can match. It has been a long time in the earning, from the day he gave the then-young Andrew Balding his first Classic success with Casual Look (Red Ransom) in the Oaks of 2003, followed by the Derby victory for Sir Percy (GB) ((Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) for Marcus Tregoning and owners Anthony and Victoria Pakenham. The Coronation Cup may not be a Classic but success will have been all the sweeter for the fact that it was the first at Group 1 level for Dwyer's father-in-law William Muir, who this year added Chris Grassick to his training licence.

Devlin shared in Dwyer's joy, and as he watched the replay of the win for the colt he bred in partnership with Guy and Hugh Leach, he said, “Primarily we're delighted for William because he's been training for 30 years and this is his first Group 1 winner. We've been in it for a couple of years and we're very grateful to William for all the effort he puts in.”

He continued, “We thought [Pyledriver] would improve as a 4-year-old. He's fairly modestly bred, like the owners, and we didn't think he had huge stallion potential so it was important for us to get the Group 1 on his CV. That's job done. I'm not quite sure where we go from here. He's entered in the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot, but that might come a bit soon, and he has entries in the King George and the Arc, and he proved today he acts on pretty soft ground.”

The owners have much to look forward to as Pyledriver's 10-year-old dam La Pyle (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) has a 3-year-old filly by New Approach (GB) named Country Pyle (GB) who is set to make her debut in the coming weeks, as well as a juvenile Oasis Dream (GB) colt called Stockpyle (GB). 

Devlin added, “We also have a yearling filly by Frankel (GB) and La Pyle is in foal to Kingman (GB). We took the decision to invest and we hope it pays off.”

He also remembered his late friend and advisor Kevin Mercer, the former owner of Usk Valley Stud, where Pyledriver was bred. 

“If it hadn't been for Kevin we wouldn't be here today. He had the vision and the knowledge to think that the mare had it in her,” he said. 

Martin Dwyer admitted after the race that he feared he could be replaced on Pyledriver by a bigger-name jockey. He said: “I love this place, I always have. I've had some great times riding here and I've been lucky. Half my worry was losing the ride on him. It's not easy when you are not fashionable and you are not riding. You will have owners own a good horse like him and then it doesn't pan out and he doesn't win.”

He continued, “The Derby was a write-off and then there are always people saying, 'why don't you use X, Y, Z as they are riding tons of winners and why are you using him as he is not high flying at the moment?' But that is sport and that is what happens so you have to really fight your corner.”

In Pyledriver he has found a fellow battler, and the pair ensured that the day wasn't only about a 21st Classic victory for one of the world's most recognisable jockeys and a 40th British Classic for the unstoppable Aidan O'Brien, who has now won this season's 1000 Guineas and Oaks with the fillies who earned their trainer a £4,000 fine for bearing the wrong saddle cloths in last season's G1 Fillies' Mile. 

For syndicates from one end of the scale to the other, there was plenty to cheer about on Oaks day. There's currently an advertisement on the British racing channels aimed at improving diversity and inclusivity which has the simple catchline of 'Racing is everyone's sport'. On Friday at Epsom it certainly felt so.

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