Tag: Racing

The 37th edition of the Fleet Treat Stakes will top the bill Thursday as Del Mar swings back into action after a smashing opening weekend of racing. The seven-panel test for 3-year-old California-bred or sired fillies carries a purse of $175,000 and has drawn a field of eight, headed by the gray miss Connie Swingle.

The Fleet Treat is part of the Golden State Stakes Series that consists of 36 races over the year at racetracks up and down the state worth a total of $4.475 million. Eight of those races are run at the Del Mar summer meet and this is the first of the bunch.

Connie Swingle, who'll be handled by her regular rider of late, Kyle Frey, has raced six times, winning four of them and running second in the other two. She's owned and was bred by Nick Alexander, who stands her sire, the fast gray horse Grazen, who is one of the state's top stallions.

Among her victories for trainer Phil D'Amato are a pair at Del Mar last year, where she registered her initial win, then took down honors in the Generous Portion Stakes. The speedster has been favored in every one of her starts and she's likely to keep that record alive Thursday.

Here's the full field for the Fleet Treat in post position order with their riders:

Nick Alexander's Rose Dawson (Ramon Vazquez up); Mr.-Mrs. Larry Williams' Tam's Little Angel (Catalino Martinez); Tommy Town Thoroughbreds' Opening Buzz (Evan Roman); Connie Swingle; Baffert of Pageler's Fun to Dream (Juan Hernandez); Cole Ranch Partners' Ellamira (Frank Alvarado); Phil Lebherz's Everlys Girl (Tyler Baze), and Maller, Sauder or Sauder's Gianna's Wild Cat (Florent Geroux).

Two of the fillies with only one start each may pose threats to Connie Swingle. Opening Buzz, a $34,000 purchase at the Northern California Yearling Sale, won at first asking at Golden Gate Fields on June 11, scoring by seven lengths in good time. She's put in several steady works since under the tutelage of Jonathan Wong.

Fun to Dream, a gray by champion Arrogate, also clicked a first asking on My 28 at Santa Anita, scoring by six and a quarter lengths. She's been working sharply since for trainer Bob Baffert.

First post Thursday is a 2 p.m. and the Fleet Treat is Race 7 of eight on the card

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Kyprios confirmed himself as the new king of the staying division when edging out Stradivarius in a stellar renewal of the G1 Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup, in which the big guns came to the fore.

Kyprios, sent off a 6-4 favorite to follow up his Gold Cup success, was always well-placed under Ryan Moore. The son of Galileo was in pole position throughout the closing stages and gamely held off valiant four-time victor Stradivarius (9/2) by a neck in a thrilling finish, with last year's winner Trueshan (2/1) a just over a length further back in third.

It was a third win in the race for trainer Aidan O'Brien, who had previously taken the spoils with the outstanding Yeats in 2006 and 2008.

O'Brien said: “Kyprios is a great horse. Ryan gave him a beautiful ride and he is only ever in the gear that you want him. He is always keeping plenty and is a horse that loves a battle.

“He is lazy and if you want him to stay in first gear, he will stay in first gear and not go into second gear unless you want him. That is the way he is and the way he has always been. He saves everything and is very professional. I'd say there's a lot more to come. He loves racing, is easy on himself and the plan from here is to go to the Irish St Leger.

“He has a lot of class, a lot of quality. He has run over two and a half miles at Royal Ascot and two miles today, but we would have had no problem starting him over a mile and a quarter at the start of the year, as he has that real pace. However, you don't see it as he doesn't show it unless you really want it. It's great to have him. Those type of horses are very special – when you have a horse who stays like that and has that class.”

Moore said: “Kyprios has done nothing wrong this year. Today was only his eighth race and he is only doing what he has to do. It was a steadily-run race and he was in front a long way out. He was just waiting. I always feel that I'm not going to the bottom of him.

“He is a proper Group One horse and Aidan has always had a lot of belief in the horse. At the start of the year, he was saying what he thought he could do, so all credit to him and the team at home for getting him back.

“Kyprios was always held in high regard. He is a full-brother to Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song, who is a lovely filly. He won his first start at three and then got beat in the Derby Trial. We were disappointed but it turned out to be a good Derby Trial. I was not on him in the Queen's Vase [when he went under the stalls], but he was well fancied that day. It was just one of those things. He has a great attitude and is not a horse with any badness in him.

“Yeats was a machine. This horse won a Gold Cup at four and I think there's more to come. We don't know where we'll end up yet. You know how good Trueshan is and Stradivarius has been, and the fourth horse Coltrane is improving. I think as far as Goodwood Cups go, it was a very strong race.”

Stradivarius' owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen said: “I was happy with the way Stradivarius ran. I thought half a furlong out he was potentially in front, although it was hard to tell from the angle. Stradivarius and Kyprios were a fair way apart on the racecourse and I don't know if it was competitive enough for him. If he had been upsides, it might have been a different story.

“Andrea [Atzeni] said he was following Kyprios through and he felt like he was going to do him for toe and then he got the bump from Trueshan, which forced him inside. He was in a pocket, but they had the cutaway today so he could go up the inside. When he made his run, I wasn't sure if he would get up.

“We are not going to say goodbye, not when he is at the top of his game and ran like that today. He has still run in the last year or two like he has his enthusiasm. There is no point stopping him in the middle of the season. This is the best Goodwood Cup – it was lined up to be a tremendous race and going into this race today I thought he could win or finish third or fourth. He has run within a head of the Gold Cup winner. I think it was a great performance. We will go on for at least one more.

“York would be on the cards for the Lonsdale and the long straight there suits him. Frankie has handled him well there and I don't know if he will ride. I need to discuss that with the trainer. I thought it was classy from Frankie to come out before the race and wish Andrea luck after all these years.”

John Gosden said of Stradivarius: “It was superb. Stradivarius was in good form before. He came back in here shouting at Trueshan, so the race didn't stress him too much.

“We had a lovely position on the inside following Kyprios and then Hollie thought the pace wasn't quick enough, so she moved and we went from the outside to the inside. Our only slight frustration is that, because of that, we had to go down the cutaway, were racing on our own and had nothing left to race with.

“Stradivarius is a wise old owl now and he knows when he gets to the front that he has done his bit. At his age, he likes something to run with and has never been a horse to go and win by far.

“He was in the first three in the Gold Cup and won the Yorkshire Cup, so he can still compete at this level. It's just that he is an eight-year-old entire. If he were a gelding, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

“Stradivarius will tell us and that is the key thing. He is the most cheerful horse to come and meet every morning. He comes out playing and shouting, he is a great character. If anyone has the blues, he will soon kick them out of you.”

Andrea Atzeni said: “Stradivarius ran his heart out. The race went quite smoothly and I followed Kyprios. We went a nice pace and four out Trueshan arrived on my outside, but it was a long way from home and I didn't want to wheel him out and get racing early.

“I made my challenge in the middle of the track and the winner just went away from us. He got a little lonely on his own, but he ran to the line like a champion and you can't take that away from him. There are not many like him.”

Alan King said of Trueshan: “Not happy not to have won, but it was a hell of a performance. It was a proper Goodwood Cup. I think the ground [might have led to the defeat], but I was happy to run and have no regrets. We know he is a better horse on soft but there is no disgrace today.”

3.35pm Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup (Group 1) (British Champions Series)
1 Kyprios (Moyglare, Magnier, Tabor, Smith, Westerberg) Aidan O'Brien IRE 4-9-11 Ryan Moore 6/4F
2 Stradivarius (Bjorn Nielsen) John & Thady Gosden 8-9-11 Andrea Atzeni 9/2
3 Trueshan (Singula Partnership) Alan King 6-9-11 Hollie Doyle 2/1
9 ran

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Hollie Doyle can't wait for her Qatar Nassau Stakes reunion with Nashwa, on whom she enjoyed yet another significant career 'first' in last month's Prix de Diane Hermes at Chantilly.

As the beaten favorite in a Newmarket novice on her sole start as a 2-year-old, Nashwa was not an obvious candidate for Classic success, but Doyle liked her from the moment she first sat on her and the pair have developed a special relationship.

John and Thady Gosden's daughter of Frankel is the most exciting filly Doyle has been associated with to date, her only defeat in four starts this year having been over a trip which stretched her when third in the Cazoo Oaks. She will understandably start firmly odds on in a field of nine for Thursday's Group 1, a part of the 35-race QIPCO British Champions Series which showcases the UK's finest Flat races.

Doyle had no simple task tactically and had to be more positive on Nashwa than usual from stall 2 in a field of 17 in the Diane, a race which was also won by the 2020 Nassau Stakes winner Fancy Blue.

Doyle explained: “It was quite a challenge from the draw she had but I knew what I wanted to do and how the French ride, and so I was able to be a bit cheekier than I might have been at home. Over there you have to be two lengths clear before you can cross over, and I used that to my advantage.

“I got a prominent position and held it, knowing that they would have to work really hard if they were to come around me and go two lengths clear. I was happy doing what I wanted to do and it worked out well.”

She added: “Winning the Prix de Diane on Nashwa was one of the very best days I've had in the saddle. As my first Classic winner it was huge. Just amazing. I've ridden a few winners over in France but that was a different class.

“Nashwa is just unreal and she's getting better and better. Every time I sit on her between races she's improved again. I rode a piece of work on her last week which was very similar to the work we did before France and she's bigger and stronger once again, and better than ever.

“There's no reason she shouldn't handle Goodwood. Although I did feel she was a bit weak on the track at Epsom in the Oaks, that was still early in her career and she handled it, although it wasn't ideal. She was beaten more by the trip than the track, and Goodwood shouldn't be a problem.”

Doyle's husband Tom Marquand is seeking a first Goodwood Group 1 success on the second favorite Lilac Road, whose trainer William Haggas has a particularly strong team of fillies.

Haggas said: “Lilac Road was a Group 2 winner at York in May in the Middleton and the only reason she hasn't run since is that there aren't many races for fillies when they've won their Group 2. There's only really the Pretty Polly, in which we ran two others. Also it was soft ground, which she doesn't want.

“She's fine and she's working nicely. She's fresh and well and she's in good shape. She'll run a good race, but whether she's quite up to that class we'll find out on Thursday.”

Dreamloper was down the field in the Pretty Polly Stakes but had Lilac Road back in fifth when a Group 2 winner at Newmarket on her reappearance, after which she gained a first Group 1 win in the Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp.

Her trainer Ed Waker can explain the disappointing run in Ireland and he believes that the filly, on whom Kieran Shoemark is seeking to follow up last year's win on Lady Bowthorpe, ought to be second favourite.

Walker said: “The ground was the problem at the Curragh last time, and also she got a bit crowded, which made her a bit keen. Keenness has always been a bit of a thing for her but she's been quite good this year. On that ground though Kieran said she was wheelspinning. We can put a line through that and she ought to be second favourite, as last time we met Lilac Road in the Dahlia we beat her, and we've won a Group 1 since then.

“The win in the Prix d'Ispahan was great. It was really quick ground there – I walked the track and there's no way it was the good to soft that they were calling it. – but she settled great that day. When she settles she has a deadly turn of foot, and the faster the ground the better.”

Aidan O'Brien's four Nassau Stakes winners were all already Classic winners, but this year's representative Concert Hall has yet to win anything better than a Group 3. She has been running well at a very high level however, most recently in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes, and wears cheekpieces for the first time.

O'Brien said: “She ran a good race in America and finished fourth. She's also run in the Irish Guineas, the Oaks and the Pretty Polly and she always seems to run a good race.”

Also challenging from Ireland is Curragh Group 2 third One For Bobby, on whom Frankie Dettori will be teaming up with his old friend Johnny Murtagh, who rode the O'Brien winners Peeping Fawn (2007) and Halfway To Heaven (2008).

Sir Michael Stoute, the last of whose record seven Nassau wins was back in 2004, runs Ville De Grace, whose form is closely linked to Lilac Road and Dreamloper. Ville De Grace beat Lilac Road in the Pride Stakes at Newmarket in October but was only fourth behind her in the Middleton Stakes. In between she was beaten a nose by Dreamloper in the Dahlia Stakes.

The field is completed by Middleton Stakes runner-up Aristia, York Listed winner Fonteyn and Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Rogue Millennium.

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