Connections Of Believing And Mill Stream Supplement For Sprint Cup

Believing (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) and Mill Stream (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) have been supplemented at a cost of £20,000 to take on Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) in the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday.

A total of 23 speedsters are in contention for the six-furlong Group One, with the Julie Camacho-trained Shaquille very much the star attraction as he looks to add to his previous top-level wins this summer in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket.

The George Boughey-trained Believing and Jane Chapple-Hyam's Mill Stream are two interesting contenders after their respective connections decided to add them to the field.

Believing has won two Listed races and a Group 3 this season and is one of two potential runners for the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing team along with Karl Burke's Spycatcher (Ire) (Vadamos {Fr}), who was beaten a short head by King Gold (Fr) (Anodin {Ire}) in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last month.

Mill Stream won a Listed race and a Group Three at the French track in August and fully merits his place in Group One company.

“Mill Stream has come out of his Deauville race in good order, so we have decided to take the opportunity to run him again while he is good form as there are no other options for him until Champions Day,” said Chapple-Hyam.

Ralph Beckett has left in both Kinross and Lezoo after on Sunday suggesting he is likely to rely upon the latter, while Aidan O'Brien could run Aesop's Fables and The Antarctic.

Other hopefuls include Ed Bethell's Regional, the William Haggas-trained Sacred and July Cup runner-up Run To Freedom from Henry Candy's yard.

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‘Thirty-odd years ago we’d have a pint and dream about something happening one day’: Martin Hughes on Shaquille

It may have started more by necessity than by desire, but Martin Hughes has now hit the heights that most small breeders can only dream of with his sprinting sensation, Shaquille (GB).

A year ago this week, the son of the treble Group 1-winning miler Charm Spirit (Ire) made a winning debut at York. In the ensuing 12 months, he has taken Hughes, who bred Shaquille with Michael Kerr-Dineen, and his friends in the partnership on quite a ride, often with heart in mouth, but on all bar two occasions one which ends in the winner's enclosure.

Putting a flop in the G3 Acomb S. on his second start behind him, Shaquille has remained unbeaten since last August but he did give his connections one fraught outing on Good Friday when refusing to load on All-Weather Finals day at Newcastle. His progression since then, through victories in a Newmarket handicap on Guineas weekend, Listed success at Newbury and two Group 1 strikes in the Commonwealth Cup and July Cup, is testament to the hands-on management of this tearaway talent by trainer Julie Camacho and her husband Steve Brown.

In fact, various members of the Camacho family have played their part, with Julie's father, former trainer Maurice, boarding Shaquille's dam and offspring, and her brother Matthew acting as bloodstock advisor for Hughes, a long-term owner who became a Group 1 breeder almost by accident. 

“I wasn't really setting out to be a breeder,” Hughes admits. “Michael and myself bought two Galileo fillies and they went into training with John Gosden, and both were absolute rubbish. Magic was unraced and Tinted raced once but probably shouldn't have done. So we looked at it and thought rather than give up and give them away, let's see what they can do. So they went up to Maurice and we started having them covered.”

Both Magic (Ire) and Tinted (Ire) are out of Danehill mares, bred by Glenvale Stud on a cross which has yielded plenty of success elsewhere but not for these two. Not initially anyway. In the case of Magic, a daughter of Cheveley Park Stud's prolific sprinter Danehurst (GB), talent appears to have skipped a generation. Danehurst won exactly half of her 20 starts for Sir Mark Prescott including the G2 Flying Five (which has subsequently been promoted to Group 1 status) among her eight stakes victories, and was runner-up in the G1 Golden Jubilee S. as well as being third in the July Cup, won 21 years later by her grandson.

Hughes continues, “Tinted has produced nothing of merit. Shaquille is Magic's third foal and the first two weren't very good. They say wait until the third to see what the mare is producing. The first one was by Showcasing and the second was by Oasis Dream, and he was just too large. Magic was out of Danehurst and she didn't actually produce too much. Maybe we should have paid more attention to that before we bought her for racing.”

In hindsight, it's a good job they didn't. Admittedly, Magic's first foal, Sleight (GB), remains winless in 19 starts. Her second, the giant Helpful (GB), made his debut in a Warwick bumper in May and finished tailed off, with his in-running notes reading, as his younger brother Shaquille's often do, 'Took keen hold'.

The difference is, however, that Shaquille, the sole Group 1 winner for his Haras du Logis St Germain-based sire, has such abundant speed that it is not undone by his ebullience, nor, so far, by his habit of dwelling for a split second as the gates fly open.

“You could never imagine this happening,” says Hughes as he reflects on the second Group 1 win for the three-year-old in less than a month. “Thirty-odd years ago when I started getting involved with racehorses with Michael, we'd sit down and have a pint and dream about something happening one day.”

Hughes, who also has horses with Richard Hannon among other trainers, has extended his broodmare band to three following the retirement of the dual winner Separate (GB) (Cable Bay {Ire}), who was also placed in the G3 Oh So Sharp S.

He says, “Michael retired so I bought out his half interest in everything. I had a sturdy black-type sprinter with Richard Hannon called Separate. She ran for four years and never had an injury and gave me some good times. I thought that rather than send her to the horses-in-training sale I'd see what she could do and she now has an Ardad foal.”

'The breeding operation was created out of necessity really. We've gone with relatively low-cost covers and have had a bit of luck.'

Magic, who has produced five colts to date, has a yearling by Cable Bay and a foal by Iffraaj (GB). Tinted, who is also out of a Cheveley Park Stud-bred daughter of Danehill in the Group 1 winner Regal Rose (GB), could yet have her day. Her runners by Showcasing (GB) and Zoustar (Aus) have shown little to date, but she has youngsters by Cable Bay and Kodi Bear (Ire) in the pipeline. 

“The breeding operation was created out of necessity really,” Hughes adds. “We've gone with relatively low-cost covers and have had a bit of luck. Magic had a year off and now she has a strong-looking Cable Bay yearling at Maurice's yard.”

Hughes, who lives in London, ended up having horses in trained in Yorkshire after a fortuitous meeting with Matthew Camacho, the former bloodstock director of the Racing Post.

“Matthew introduced me to his family. He gives me good guidance, good stats and good suggestions. I've been following his suggestions on the stallions we go to,” Hughes notes. 

“Matthew's project is to try to find us something that isn't a sprinter. We're trying to get something that can go a mile and a quarter-plus, but that isn't happening so far.”

In the meantime, Hughes and his friends who were gifted a no-cost share of Shaquille as a Christmas present, can plan for more days in the fast lane.

“It will be Haydock next, definitely Haydock,” says Hughes of his star colt's intended appearance in the Sprint Cup on September 9.

“Julie, Steve and their team have such a fantastic job with him. They work so hard and it's a pleasant environment [at the yard] and that feeds into how the horses react.

“We're going to carry on running through the year and then make a decision, but the way it looks to me, and I said so to Steve, is that we should just carry on.”

The sprinter, who takes his name from the basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, inspired not only by O'Neal's former team Orlando Magic but by fellow player Magic Johnson, has already jumped higher than anyone around him could have expected. Here's hoping the magic continues. 

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Newmarket: “It Will Be A Different Sort of Pressure.” Shaquille the Target in the July Cup

First there was Dettori's ban, meaning that the one missing English group 1 on his palmares was going to stay void. Then the setback to Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never). Now, the persistent rain that dogged Friday's action at Newmarket's July Festival and has changed the complexion of Saturday's feature G1 Pertemps Network July Cup. Ironically, every bit of that unexpected wet spell acted further to aid the cause of Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) who would have been Frankie's final ride in his last-chance saloon which is now closed for business forever.

Among all those twists and turns, the one imperturbable element has been 2023's shock sensation from Julie Camacho and Steve Brown's North Yorkshire-based stable little-known outside of the UK. What their ludicrously-talented 3-year-old colt Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) doesn't know about racing at this stage probably isn't worth labouring over, with his ability to do it any which way offering little hope for his opponents. Showing disdain for some basic universal rules when comfortably overcoming a criminally-slow start in the G1 Commonwealth Cup, he established himself as the sprint division's poster boy and this is his to lose.

“It will be a different sort of pressure, as it looks like we are going to start favourite whereas at Ascot Little Big Bear was a short-priced favourite and we went there slightly under the radar,” Brown said. “So it's different from that perspective, but you've got to deal with it and what a great position to be in–to have a favourite for a group one race. Physically, for all he will probably be a nicer horse next year, he is a big strong fella who holds condition well. We just hope he is maturing as we are going along. It has been a steady progression in the right direction with him and hopefully that will continue on Saturday.”

Camacho added, “We turned him out for three or four days and he started to get a bit fresh. He cantered on the Wednesday after Royal Ascot and he did a nice piece of work last Saturday and everything seems to be good.”

Rain In Time For Kinross…

While Friday's rain was an unwelcome sight for connections of most in this line-up, it was welcomed by Marc Chan and Ralph Beckett as they ponder a second major sprint for TDN Rising Star Kinross. Challenging Shaquille for favouritism on Friday night, last year's G1 Prix de la Foret and G1 British Champions Sprint S. hero looks to have things falling into place at the eleventh hour. That cannot be said for fellow TDN Rising Star, who already had a question mark over him given how readily he was brushed aside late by Shaquille at Royal Ascot before his foot problem. Aidan O'Brien is happy to let him take his chance, but softening ground could add to his woes. “At the moment everything is going well with him. It hasn't been ideal, obviously, but we're happy enough,” he said. “He just missed five or six days last week and we won't know until he runs how much it has affected him.”

Horses For Courses...

If there is one in the field who can be called a track specialist it is Michael Dods's latest sprinting starlet Azure Blue (Ire) (El Kabeir), who is four from five in this town including the Listed Boadicea S. and Listed Kilvington S. Upping her game last time to upset Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) in the G2 1895 Duke of York S. in May, she will be assisted by Paul Mulrennan who is hoping for more of the same. “She wintered very well and is more like a colt–I think she weighs more than 500 kilos and has definitely got better with age,” he said. “She seems to love Newmarket and that's a big thing as the two courses there are unique and test just about everything.”

City Of Troy And Great Truth In TDN Rising Star Superlative Tussle…

Newmarket's G2 Superlative S. has always signalled the beginning of the focus on next year's 2000 Guineas and Saturday's edition is no exception as TDN Rising Stars City Of Troy (Justify) and Great Truth (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) square up after their impressive debuts. While the former excelled in a Curragh maiden that Ballydoyle have turned into a springboard for their Classic prospects down the years, Godolphin's Great Truth was doing his stuff in a Leicester novice that Charlie Appleby used for last year's leading juvenile Naval Power (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}).

Aidan O'Brien was waxing lyrical about City Of Troy and his stride after his debut and said, “We've always thought he was a nice horse. This looks an ideal race for him and hopefully it will do him good long term and it gives him a good education.”

Appleby said of Great Truth, “He was very green that day and hung across to the left, but mentally and physically he's done very well since. When I say physically, he's tightened up, but mentally he galloped on Wednesday, William rode him, and he was very slick. We were second with Victory Dance last year and he didn't quite get to where we hoped he might get. But this year, with Aidan's horse, it will be tough, because he looks decent. But we like our horse. He is slick.”
Charlie Hills has a live contender in Teme Valley and Ballylinch Stud's Iberian (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who may not have carried the same gravitas of the big two into his introduction at Newbury but who gave the impression he has a bright future nonetheless. “Charlie is quite bold on him and he shows up quite well in the mornings,” Teme Valley's racing manager Richard Ryan said. “We're hopeful progress can continue to be made, but it is a hell of a race.”

Best Of The Rest…

Ascot's Saturday card sees the G2 Fred Cowley MBE Memorial Summer Mile, where Shadwell's Aldaary (GB) (Territories {Ire}) looks to build on his solid comeback fourth in Newmarket's G3 Criterion S. at the start of the month. The William Haggas-trained Listed Spring Trophy winner was coming back off a 420-day absence in that seven-furlong contest and has the easing ground to suit, as does the 2021 G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and G1 Criterium International hero Angel Bleu (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) who could make it a big day for Marc Chan and Ralph Beckett. The nationwide rain was also very welcome for another Haggas bigwig in Hamish (GB) (Motivator {GB}) ahead of York's G3 Silver Cup.

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Talking Points: Life After Frankie Won’t Be Bleak With Magical Murphy Around

I don't know about you, but I can't seem to remember a better big-race ride in recent times than what Oisin Murphy produced in winning the G1 Commonwealth Cup aboard Julie Camacho's Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}).

It would be hard enough to win a middle-of-the-road handicap after blowing the start like Shaquille did. A Group 1 at Ascot? You must be having a laugh. 

The in-running punters agreed and quickly laid Shaquille at odds all the way up to 90 on the exchanges. Ouch. But even when Shaquille got to the quarters of Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never), the layers must still have fancied the heavy favourite to fight back given the ground Murphy's mount had to make up to get into a winning position. 

That's what made the ride a brilliant one. It was Murphy's reaction to the poor start that ultimately made the difference. While other riders would have panicked and tried to make up that ground lost in the early stages, Murphy kept calm, and never put Shaquille on his head. 

It would be doing Shaquille and Murphy a disservice by saying that the leaders went too quick up front which resulted in a burn up. The early indications on times would suggest that that wasn't the case at all. 

It's best to chalk this down as a top-notch performance from a sprinter on the up and an even better ride from Murphy. 

As for the runner-up, Little Big Bear, one could draw comparisons between him and the former Ballydoyle-trained Ten Sovereigns (Ire), another talented son of No Nay Never

Returning to Newmarket during high summer for the July Cup could see Little Big Bear in a better light, as it did Ten Sovereigns, who also tasted defeat in the Commonwealth Cup before scorching to that memorable success at Newmarket. 

Always Leave Them Wanting More

Call me a miserable fart [I've been called worse], but is it not getting a bit repetitive for television presenters to be willing Frankie Dettori to ride on for another year every time he bags a winner on the big stage?

One well-respected pundit even commented that, 'John Gosden will be tearing his hair out' as he tries to find a replacement for the legendary jockey. 

Okay, we get it, Frankie is box office and is arguably riding as well this year as he has for a long time but is this a narrative that will continue up until his intended retirement at either the Breeders' Cup or the Melbourne Cup? I certainly hope not. 

Britain is in a good place in terms of the talent in the weighroom, as Oisin Murphy demonstrated aboard Shaquille and as the reigning champion William Buick has proved time and time again, season after season. 

There are few professions where the lines between success and failure are more blurred than race-riding. Such a statement was summed up in commercial fashion by amateur jockey David Maxwell after he won the Champion Hunter Chase on his own horse Bob And Co at Punchestown a couple of years back. 

Maxwell said of his riding endeavours, “some days you are the dog, and then others you are the lampost.”

Frankie has been the top dog of the weighing room for the majority of his career. He made his decision to exit the stage while still operating at the top of his game.

They say all great sports stars should leave their fans wanting more and Frankie is clearly doing that at Ascot this week but it would be a shame to see him relegated to the lampost by staying on longer than he feels his body will permit him to. 

Big Bloodstock Agents Bolster Their Reputation 

It can be easy to roll your eyes and scoff at the role bloodstock agents play in this industry. Touring the world spending other people's money, you say? Where do I sign up?

The reality is that the fickleness of this game that we often hear afflicting trainers and riders also applies to bloodstock agents. This is a results-based business and the big agents need to pull the big-race riches out of the bag the same as everybody else. 

That's what made the exploits of Billy Jackson-Stops, Richard Brown, Mark McStay and others noteworthy this week. 

It has been well-documented that Jackson-Stops bought G2 Duke Of Cambridge S. winner Rogue Millennium (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) for just 35,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale. 

Brown has inherited a major client in Wathnan Racing and his strike-rate has been nothing short of phenomenal with two Royal Ascot winners Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) and Courage Mon Ami (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for the new ownership vehicle, the latter going down as an inspired buy after winning the Gold Cup on just his fourth start.

McStay's fingerprints were all over the G3 Albany S. winner Porta Fortuna (Ire) after he recommended Donnacha O'Brien's Caravaggio filly to American owners after she won her maiden on debut at the Curragh. 

The top agents have certainly earned their fee this week. 

Job Done For Tahiyra – And She's Much Better Than She Showed 

The fewer the runners in a race, the more tactical it becomes. We saw that in the Group 1 feature on Friday with Chris Hayes doing his best to keep things simple on the heavy favourite Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}).

The Irish 1,000 Guineas winner may have only won by a length in the finish and had to overcome a stewards' inquiry after she caused what appeared to be minimal interference to the runner-up Remarquee (GB) (Kingman {GB}), but there are many reasons why she can be deemed much better than what she showed at Ascot. 

Tahiyra's main asset is an explosive burst of speed and she did not get to utilise that in the Coronation S. The stronger the pace, the better Dermot Weld's charge will be, and she rates a hugely-exciting miler to follow for the rest of the season. 

With Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) likely to step up in trip and Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) proving that he is in fact beatable, there could be an opening in that division, and it would be fascinating if she were to take on the colts at some stage in the campaign. She looks the real deal.

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