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Zarak Makes Fast Start To Stud Career

When Aga Khan homebred Zarak (Fr) retired to stud at Haras de Bonneval in 2018, he boasted exemplary credentials: by the sire-making Dubawi (Ire), Zarak was a Group 1 winner out of the Aga Khan's great champion mare Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar).

Zarak did his best running at four when he won the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud over 2400 metres for trainer Alain de Royer Dupre, and therefore his first 2-year-olds in 2021 could have been somewhat forgiven should they have required time. They, however, most certainly did not. Zarak will wind down the year as France's leading first-season sire; he currently has 18 winners from 37 starters-from a first crop of 84 foals-and two stakes winners in Germany: the G3 Preis der Derbysiegers winner Lizaid (Ger) and the Listed Grosser Preis der Mehl-Mulhens-Stiftung scorer Parnac (Ire), both fillies. The best-known runner from Zarak's first crop, however, is Purplepay (Fr), a two-time winner who was third in the G1 Criterium International in October before selling to Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stables for €2-million at Arqana's December Sale to continue her racing career in America. While Purplepay appears unlikely for the French Classics, Zarak nonetheless goes into the winter with another potential leading light for ParisLongchamp and Chantilly: Allan Belshaw's homebred Times Square (Fr), who won on debut at Deauville in July and was second in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Zarak retired among a competitive sire class in France, which was headed by the European champion 3-year-old Almanzor (Fr) and also included Group 1 winners Zelzal (Fr) and Al Wukair (Ire). But Georges Rimaud, longtime manager of Bonneval, said the confidence in Zarak began to build when his foals started hitting the ground.

“Zarak has been an expected success, because he kept covering a lot of mares every year,” Rimaud said. “Breeders were quite keen to go back to him every year, and that's generally a good indication. When he started to have winners early in the summer we started looking at him seriously, and we're very pleased with what he's done, having stakes winners in Germany, and Group 1 placings in France. With his pedigree, he suddenly appears as a very good prospect.”

On the surface Zarak may have appeared a later-developing sire prospect, but a close look would have revealed a horse with potential to hit the ground running. Zarak, after all, won his only start at two and was second behind Almanzor in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club. The unbeaten Zarkava won the Prix Marcel Boussac at two and swept the French fillies' Classics before winning the G1 Prix Vermeille and the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at three.

“He was not really expected to be a champion 2-year-old producer I suppose, but it should have been expected for them to run at two,” Rimaud reasoned. “I suppose the breeders also knew that he had won his Group 1 at four and they needed to bring precocious mares. The breeders did what they should have been doing, and I think we should have expected him to have what he had this year, and I think we got a little bit more.”

Zarak covered in the neighborhood of 120 mares in each of his first four seasons at stud, with his fee remaining steady at €12,000 throughout. In today's commercially driven market where fees and book sizes ebb and flow, sometimes dramatically, before a stallion even has runners, that is a noteworthy accomplishment, and stands Zarak in good stead to build on his strong start with his subsequent crops. Zarak is booked full for 2022 at 130 mares-from almost 200 applicants–with his fee upped to €25,000.

As is typical for the Bonneval stallions-which currently also include the country's champion sire Siyouni (Fr) and Dariyan (Fr)-Zarak is syndicated, which Rimaud said also helped keep the horse's numbers high.

“The shareholders really supported the horse very well with nice mares,” he said. “I feel syndication is important to ensure the support from breeders. And I think it provides a bit of help in selling nominations-you have the shareholders talking about the horse, rather than just us.”

Those shareholders are already being rewarded, too: a 1/50th share in Zarak was sold through Arqana Online for €380,000 last week, and another for €350,000 in November.

“It's always a nice surprise when a stallion does well, so on that level it is a surprise, but should we really be surprised?” Rimaud said. “Not really, because he's extremely well-bred and he's covered some nice mares, and a good number of them, and he's had the results he has had. Breeders are very keen to use him, and he's very full this year.”

Zarak is situated in the Bonneval stallion barn kitty-corner to the aforementioned Siyouni, France's most expensive stallion at €140,000 and the sire of six Group 1 winners including this year's joint highest-rated 3-year-old St Mark's Basilica (Fr). Though Zarak has a high mountain to climb to match the exploits of his barnmate, he is thus far on the right track and their accomplishments at the same stages of their careers are not dissimilar. Siyouni had 19 winners in his first season with runners, one more than Zarak thus far, and four stakes winners. Siyouni started at €7,000 and like Zarak remained at that fee through his first four seasons before going up to €20,000 in the year that he had his first 3-year-olds. He has been on an uninterrupted upward trajectory ever since and interestingly, breeders are already taking advantage of the Zarak/Siyouni cross: Times Square is out of the Siyouni mare See You Always (GB). Zarak represents an interesting opportunity for breeders, being free from Danehill and Sadler's Wells, and is among a growing number of Dubawi sons excelling at stud, that list also including Time Test (GB) from the same cohort as well as Night Of Thunder (Ire) and New Bay (GB).

“They're not similar stallions, but they've had similar results in the first year and let's hope Zarak takes the same road; that would be very, very nice,” Rimaud said. “But we'll stay modest and see what happens. Stallions are a funny, funny business, and people can get off them very quickly. But Zarak's yearling sales have also been very good, and he produces very nice-looking horses.”

As a successful sire out of one of the very best horses raced in the Aga Khan colours, Zarak's accomplishments must evoke a great sense of pride for the operation that celebrates its 100th year in the sport in 2022. Zarkava, indeed, is one of just two horses raced by the current Aga Khan to win four Group 1 races, the other being Blushing Groom (Fr), while the great Derby winners Shergar and Sinndar are among those to have collected three. Unlike her son, Zarkava did not get off to the most distinguished start at stud, with none of her first three foals making it to the races, but she has since made up for that with Zarak, her fourth foal, followed by the listed-winning and Group 1-placed Zarkamiya (Fr) (Frankel {GB}) and the listed-winning Zaykava (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}). Both fillies are now ensconced in the Bonneval broodmare band alongside their dam: Zarkamiya produced a Medaglia d'Oro foal this year and is currently in foal to Siyouni, while Zaykava is in foal for the first time to Zarak's sire Dubawi. Zarkava had a Siyouni colt this year but will be rested in 2022.

“Zarkava is doing well,” Rimaud said. “She's not in foal this year; she was barren to Lope De Vega (Ire). But she has had 11 or 12 foals in a row, so she gets a well-deserved rest this year and then we'll decide who she goes to next year; we haven't done the matings yet. She is well, but she is getting on, so we need to preserve her a bit.”

“The Aga Khan said, when Zarkava won the Arc, that it epitomized his breeding operation,” Rimaud added. “And that's just the continuity of it, really. That's the goal, what we're about; raising good racehorses to become nice broodmares or good stallions. So I think he's obviously very, very pleased with it [Zarak's success]. But we still need support from people with nice mares, and hopefully he can follow in the tracks of Siyouni.

“Zarak comes from a very true Aga Khan family; he descends from Mumtaz Mahal. Next year, we are celebrating 100 years of the Aga Khan's breeding operation, so that comes at a good time. These pedigrees have been really nourished; those very good Aga Khan pedigrees always show something, so it's quite interesting that it will be 100 years next year, and Zarak's 3-year-olds will hopefully do well. So everything is coming into place.”

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Newtown Families Generations In The Making

Amid the frenzied trade of the Tuesday evening session at last month's Tattersalls December Mares Sale, there were plenty of plaudits being passed around, and rightly so, for the sellers and the purchasers of the session's most sought-after mares. Partaking in a lower-profile-but equally deserved–celebration was the Grassick family of Newtown Stud, which had bred two of the top five lots at the sale: the Group 1-placed 2-year-old filly Flotus (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) (lot 1798), sold to Katsumi Yoshida for 1-million gns, and the listed-winning and group-placed Shades Of Blue (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) (lot 1765), sold in foal for the first time to Frankel (GB) for 850,000gns to Peter Brant's White Birch Farm.

Those results were extra-special for Sheila, Cathy and Sally Ann Grassick because both Flotus and Shades Of Blue are descendants of mares purchased and cultivated by the stud's late patriarch, the highly respected horseman Brian Grassick.

“It was such an evening,” recalled Cathy Grassick, who runs Newtown Stud and Brian Grassick Bloodstock alongside her mother Sheila and sister Sally Ann. “Myself and Sally Ann were there together and it was such an emotional evening. It was really a culmination of a long effort with those families and to be able to do that with them was amazing.”

Fittingly in a year where buyers, including Grassick, clamoured to purchase mares from extra-large Shadwell drafts, both Flotus and Shades Of Blue descend from mares that Brian Grassick purchased from Sheikh Hamdan.

“I was still going back to the well this year buying mares from Shadwell,” Grassick said. “My father always said, 'buy from people who breed their horses well, because they are the families that keep coming back.'”

The sequence began when Brian Grassick purchased the winning Mathaayl (Shadeed), for a client, out of the Goffs November sale in 1999 for 42,000 Irish pounds. Mathaayl's first two foals had been winners, but she went through the ring off an unfortunate run of four blank years. Sent to Unfuwain the following spring, Mathaayl produced a filly that was bought back by Shadwell for 180,000gns as a yearling. Named Sahool (Ire), she reversed Mathaayl's fortunes by giving her a first black-type foal with a win in the Listed Chalice S. and placings in the G2 Ribblesdale S. and G2 Lancashire Oaks.

Mathaayl's fortunes temporarily reversed thereafter, her next six foals either unraced or unplaced. She was offered again by owner John Davis at the 2006 Tattersalls December Mares Sale, where Brian Grassick purchased her for himself for 29,000gns.

“Mathaayl came back up in the sale carrying to Alhaarth, and my father was just besotted by this mare, and always had been, and he decided he was going to buy her,” Cathy Grassick said. “He wanted to buy her to get a filly from her because he really loved this mare. Unfortunately, my father never lived to see a filly.”

Mathaayl produced a colt by Alhaarth (Ire) in 2007 and, in 2009, a colt by King's Best that was born about a month after Grassick's premature passing from cancer, aged just 54. Mathaayl's 2010 foal by Jeremy died, but at last in 2011, along came Brian Grassick's filly out of Mathaayl, a daughter of Verglas (Ire).

“My father so much longed for a filly [out of Mathaayl], and she didn't arrive until just after my father passed away,” Cathy Grassick said. “That was tough, but it was lovely, and she's by Verglas and she's called Enjoyable.”

Enjoyable went into training, Grassick explained, but was ultimately kept unraced after suffering a minor injury. She was covered by Kodiac at the age of four.

“My mother decided it wasn't worth risking her because she was so planned for and so longed for that we didn't want to risk racing her,” Grassick said. “So we kept her unraced and her first foal is Shades Of Blue.”

Shades Of Blue was bought by Rathbarry Stud for 105,000gns as a Tattersalls December Foal, and was a 110,000gns buyback when re-visiting the Park Paddocks ring the following autumn for Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Racing for Alison Jones and trainer Clive Cox, Shades Of Blue won on debut at Ascot in May of 2018 before finishing third in the G2 Queen Mary S. Traveling to Maisons-Laffitte for the five-furlong Listed Prix Hampton the following June, Shades Of Blue earned a first black-type victory before stringing together second-place finishes in the G3 Summer S., Listed Flying Fillies' S. and the G3 Prix du Petit Couvert, the last of those when she was beaten a short neck by the future multiple Group 1 winner Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead). Returning to Tattersalls last December, Shades Of Blue was picked up by BBA Ireland for 320,000gns and put in foal to Frankel before her latest, and most lucrative, turn through the ring. She is set to visit Peter Brant's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr) for her second mating.

“It's been really lovely to be so well-rewarded; my father really wanted that filly [Enjoyable] and to have her come out and produce a black-type horse with her first foal was amazing,” Grassick said. “Then to have that foal go on and turn up at the sales in foal to Frankel looking amazing-I have to say all credit to Bill Dwan, she looked a million dollars at the sale. And to have her come into the ring in foal to Frankel and make 850,000gns, it was spectacular.”

And despite her sometimes frustrating produce record, Brian Grassick was ultimately proven correct about Mathaayl by more than just Shades Of Blue. Today, seven of Mathaayl's daughters are stakes producers, and her descendants include the Group 2-winning sire Gutaifan (Ire); the dual G2 Hardwicke S. winner and multiple Group 1-placed Maraahel (Ire); the G1 Lockinge S. winner Mustashry (GB); this year's G2 Premio Gran Criterium scorer Don Chicco (GB); G3 Cumberland Lodge S. winner Laraaib (Ire); and G1 Premio Jockey Club winner and G1 St Leger second Ventura Storm (Ire). Enjoyable's yearling colt by Invincible Spirit will run in America after being purchased by Klaravich Stables for 170,000gns at Tattersalls in October, and Enjoyable is back in foal to Invincible Spirit, having not had a foal in 2021.

The Grassicks had to wait little more than an hour after Shades Of Blue's turn to see Brian's legacy once again honoured through the sale of Flotus. The foundations for her story were laid nearly 20 years ago, in the autumn of 2002, when Brian Grassick purchased the 9-year-old Naazeq (GB) (Nashwan) from Shadwell for $115,000, in partnership with Tim Pabst, at Keeneland November in foal to Elusive Quality. Naazeq had three foals of racing age at that stage, but it would still be almost two years before her filly Tamweel (Gulch) would win the Listed Mariah's Storm S. and finish second in the GI Spinster S. at Keeneland.

“My father was very enamoured with Elusive Quality,” Cathy Grassick said. “Naazeq was by Nashwan, whose influence as a broodmare sire needs no explanation. My dad really wanted an Elusive Quality filly.”

Unlike Mathaayl, Naazeq didn't make the Grassicks wait for their filly. She foaled a daughter of Elusive Quality five months later, and the filly was retained to race for Sheila Grassick and Joe Higgins. She was named Sharapova after rising tennis star Maria Sharapova.

“Mum and dad were away and they were watching tennis, and dad asked me to reserve the name Sharapova,” Grassick recalled. “We reserved the name and it was on the back of Joe Higgins having a very good horse called Dimitrova, who was very lucky, and dad liked the Russian-sounding name.”

Put into training with Brian Grassick's brother Michael Grassick at Fenpark Stables just down the road from Newtown Stud, Sharapova broke her maiden at The Curragh in her first start at three, and was retired back to the Newtown paddocks after an abbreviated 4-year-old campaign. Brian Grassick had been pivotal in the purchase of Invincible Spirit (Ire) to stand at the nearby Irish National Stud, and he and Sheila were shareholders in the Group 1-winning sprinter. Thus, Sharapova-now owned by the Grassicks in partnership with Matt Duffy–visited Invincible Spirit for her first covering in 2007 off the back of the horse's excellent first year with runners, a start that he would continually build on to become a perennial leading sire.

Sharapova produced an Invincible Spirit filly, later named Floriade (Ire), in the spring of 2008 and she was sold to Dick O'Gorman on behalf of Godolphin for 130,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Sale. After Brian's death, Sharapova was sent through the sales ring to dissolve the partnership, with Duffy buying out Newtown.

“My mother really wanted to get back into the family, but we didn't have any of the other daughters and Naazeq had since retired as a broodmare,” Cathy Grassick said. “So I went looking for another daughter and found Floriade in the [December] sale in Arqana [in 2011] and we purchased her there for €15,000, back from Godolphin, and we started breeding from her.”

Floriade, now owned in partnership with the Grassicks' longtime friend and business associate Tim Pabst, started out with a touch of bad luck, losing her first two foals, but she soon began to show promise with colts by Nathaniel (Ire) and Iffraaj (GB) fetching €50,000 and 75,000gns at the sales. Floriade produced a filly by Starspangledbanner in 2019, and there was a feeling, Grassick said, that she was exactly what her father had had in mind when he bought Naazeq almost 20 years ago.

“Floriade then bred Flotus, and that was the result of generations of my father wanting an Elusive Quality mare,” Grassick said. “Flotus was beautiful from the moment she was born. It's one of the reasons that the mare is already back in foal to Starspangledbanner. When we were deciding who to send the mare to, having seen Flotus as a yearling, you couldn't but want to breed her back.”

Offered by Newtown Stud at Goffs November, Flotus was purchased for €65,000 by Glenvale Stud, which pinhooked her for 125,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale when she was purchased by Arthur Hoyeau on behalf of a partnership. Sent to Simon and Ed Crisford, Flotus won by 4 3/4 lengths on debut at Goodwood in May, earning 'TDN Rising Star' status. She added the Listed Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy S. in August before finishing second to Tenebrism (Caravaggio) in the G1 Cheveley Park S., leading for all but the final five strides when caught late on.

“Simon Crisford's team have been so lovely and involved us, and Arthur Hoyeau, who bought her as a yearling-they have been so nice to us as breeders,” Grassick said. “Quite often that doesn't happen, but they've been so nice to us all and let us be slightly involved along the way. It's been such a pleasure and I really hope that Flotus gets to stay with the Crisfords, because they've done such an amazing job. Interestingly Simon Crisford also trains a filly called Miss Marble, who is by Iffraaj and has won her last two starts and who is out of a full-sister to Floriade. So he knows how to handle the family.”

Floriade has a yearling colt by Camacho that has been retained and will most likely race for Sheila Grassick and Tim Pabst. Like Enjoyable, Floriade didn't have a foal this year but is back in foal to Starspangledbanner and, unsurprisingly, already booked back to him for 2022. Sharapova, for her part, has also been a very useful producer, with Miss Marble's Group 1-placed dam Lottie Dod (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and the dual group-placed 2-year-old Rockaway Valley (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) in addition to Floriade.

Making Tattersalls all the more special was the fact that it came on the heels of an excellent foal sale for Newtown Stud at Goffs. Newtown brought eight foals to Kildare paddocks and sold all eight including the sale-topping Frankel (GB) half-sister to Classic winner and sire Sea The Moon (Ger) to Juddmonte Farms for €550,000. The Frankel filly, who was born and raised at Newtown, was sold on behalf of breeders Heike Bischoff and Niko Lafrentz of Gestut Gorlsdorf. Grassick got to know Bischoff and Lafrentz when they brought Sea The Moon to Tattersalls as a yearling in 2012.

“We met because of Sea The Moon; I fell in love with him as a bloodstock agent at the sales,” Grassick said. “They knew I was a big fan of his and that's how I got to know them.”

Sea The Moon was a 230,000gns buyback by his breeders.

“Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to buy him for my clients, but they retained him and we got to know each other then,” Grassick continued. “We kept in touch and not long after that they sent [his dam] Sanwa to Newtown. She was coming back to see Sea The Stars when Sea The Moon was a 2-year-old, and she boarded with us then and she's been back to visit us a few times. She's here with us still at the moment, which is a very big honour to be entrusted with something so precious. They've been great supporters of us and great friends.”

Grassick was quick to acknowledge, too, the contribution of the entire Newtown Stud team.

“For a small farm to bring eight foals to the sale and have the week we had at Goffs was a great result,” she said. “Caroline Hannon, who is our manager here, puts a huge amount of work into it, and we wouldn't be able to do what we do without her. It's been a real testament to the effort we've all put in and for myself, Sally Ann and mum it's great to be able to carry on dad's legacy. That's really important to all of us.”

This latest success, and everything that has come along the way, has, of course, been the realization of Brian and Sheila Grassick's vision all those years ago.

“My parents bought the farm together in 1996,” Grassick said. “They set it up together. And grew it from being their own personal broodmare band into a real commercial entity. When my dad passed away myself and my mum were running the farm until Sally Ann came back from France, and now the three of us work together with Caroline Hannon. The three of us work really well together with Caroline and it's gone from strength to strength. After my father passed away we increased the size of the farm; we purchased more land, which was very brave of my mother at the time. She's been amazing. She's put a lot of work and effort into the farm and it's really paid off now.

“It will be exciting to see what they go on to do now,” Grassick said of Flotus and Shades Of Blue. “It's great with those families going forward, and we have a lot of other young mares on the farm that we're hoping we can do the same with.”

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From Claimers To Classics For Aumonerie

While it was the multi-million Euro mares who stole the limelight at Arqana's December Breeding Stock Sale two weeks ago, there were successes to be celebrated beneath those top prices. Among the most remarkable of those has to be Haras de l'Aumonerie's Starspangledbanner (Aus) colt (lot 145), who was bought by Yeomanstown Stud for €170,000.

The colt, already named Captain Star (Fr), had plenty going for him on both sides of his pedigree, being by a popular sire and a brother to two stakes horses, including none other than this year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches victress Coeursamba (Fr) (The Wow Signal {Ire}). Captain Star and Coeursamba are out of the 15-year-old Marechale (Fr) (Anabaa), whose five foals thus far were all bred by Julie Mestrallet at her Haras de l'Aumonerie just outside Deauville.

With the recent high-end breeding stock sales still fresh in the memory, it is easy to become desensitized to mares commanding millions. But we are likewise reminded at every sale that there are diamonds in the rough, and Marechale certainly represents the latter scenario, having been bought by Mestrallet out of the claiming ranks for €2,500, having failed to win in 16 starts.

The path from claimer to breeding Guineas winners is not the most well-trodden one, but Mestrallet has done things her own way since taking over her mother, Francine Mestrallet's, Aumonerie 10 years ago and converting it from a reputable nursery for showjumpers and ponies into a Classic-producing Thoroughbred operation. An accomplished showjumper herself who also worked as a groom for Olympic-level riders, Julie Mestrallet then shifted her sights to the veterinary field, taking a job at a clinic. One of the clinic's clients was Haras du Quesnay, and it was through visits to the Head family's historic stud that Mestrallet got to know the accomplished sires Anabaa and Bering. With her interest in racing suitably piqued, Mestrallet went to work for trainer Jennifer Bidgood, and it was during a trip to the small racecourse Niort in the West of France on June 13, 2010, that Mestrallet laid eyes on Marechale for the first time.

“I found Marechale in a claiming race, and even though she had no performances, I was interested in her because she is by Anabaa out of a Bering mare and bred by Quesnay,” Mestrallet said. “I'm a huge fan of the Quesnay pedigrees and Alec Head.”

Marechale, a full-sister to the multiple listed winner Maxwell (Fr), had been raced by the Head family through her first 10 starts, after which she joined trainer Philippe Le Gal. She was upped in trip by her new trainer, but that did little to turn Marechale's fortunes around, and she finished fifth at Niort that day for a €5,000 claiming tag.

Mestrallet recalled, “I went to see the trainer on the day and asked him how much the mare would cost. He said he wanted to continue to run her in claiming races, but I gave him my phone number and said, 'the day you want to get rid of her, call me.'”

Just a month later, Mestrallet's phone rang.

“He said, 'I don't want her anymore,'” Mestrallet said. “He said he was going to race her one last time, and then he would let me buy her for €2,500.”

The reasoning behind Marechale's first mating was relatively straightforward: Mestrallet held a free nomination to Alexandros (GB), won through the French TBA's stallion seasons draw. The result was a filly, later named Comme Une Grande (Fr), that Mestrallet sold for €26,000 to Yohann Gourraud at Arqana's October Yearling Sale in 2014-not a bad return on an initial €2,500 investment. Meanwhile, Mestrallet's luck at the French TBA's stallion seasons draw had continued; she won a nomination to Mr. Sidney and sold the resulting filly out of Marechale, Lady Sidney (Fr), as a foal in 2014 for €8,500 to Fresnay Agricole.

In addition to turning a few tidy profits for Mestrallet in the sales ring, Marechale soon proved a hardy producer. Comme Une Grand was a winner who ran 35 times, while Lady Sidney, all told, would run 56 times for seven wins, including a third in ParisLongchamp's Listed Prix Zarkava. After Lady Sidney, Marechale foaled the winning La Grande Zame (Fr) (Zambezi Sun {GB}), sold for €8,000 as a foal. The following season, Mestrallet once again returned victorious from the stallion seasons draw, securing a covering for Marechale to Sinndar (Ire), and that resulted in the ultimately unraced filly Twelveoclock (Fr), sold for €5,000 as a yearling in 2017. By that time, Marechale was in foal to G1 Prix Morny and G2 Coventry S. winner The Wow Signal, a decision based not on a free draw, but on Mestrallet's intuition.

“I loved The Wow Signal's head, the way he walked, everything about the physical of the horse,” she said.

Despite a very successful start to life, The Wow Signal's second career proved star-crossed; he was subfertile, and after getting a very small number of mares in foal during two seasons, died as a result of complications from laminitis. Among his second crop was Coeursamba, who was born at Aumonerie on Mar. 25, 2018. Like Marechale's latest Starspangledbanner colt, Captain Star, Mestrallet soon had a name picked out for the filly.

“She was something special from the day she was born,” Mestrallet said. “I had named her, 'Wow She's Great,' but the people that bought her changed the name. When we saw Coeursamba, we liked her so much that we decided to breed the mare to Starspangledbanner immediately, because we were so happy with the filly that we thought the mare deserved to go to a good stallion.”

Coeursamba sold to Marc Antoine Berghgracht on behalf of Jose Delmotte's Haras d'Haspel for €24,000 at Arqana's December Sale of 2018, and was pinhooked to Jean-Claude Rouget for €40,000 at Arqana August the following summer, four months before Marechale's Olympic Glory (Ire) colt Senza Malocchio (Fr) sold for €14,000 to Marco Bozzi at the December Sale. Senza Malocchio is raced by Mike Pietrangelo and John D'Amato, who were also co-owners of Olympic Glory's best progeny, Grand Glory (GB). Grand Glory sold for €2.5-million at Arqana on the same night that Captain Star went through the ring.

A winner in her second start at two for owner Jean Louis Tepper, Coeursamba was twice Group 3-placed at two and fifth in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac, the evening prior to which she had changed hands for €400,000 at Arqana's Arc Sale, bought by Abdullah bin Fahad Al Attiyah. Third in the Listed Prix du Louvre going a mile at ParisLongchamp in April, she shocked the G1 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) when winning the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches at 38-1, and was later purchased privately by Katsumi Yoshida.

Coeursamba's Classic win provided the perfect springboard for her Starspangledbanner three-quarter-brother to be one of the top-priced foals at Arqana, and he is set to return to the ring next year as a Yeomanstown pinhook prospect. Marechale is currently in foal to another Group 1-winning sprinter, Haras d'Etreham's Hello Youmzain (Fr), and her foal's arrival will be keenly anticipated by not only Mestrallet but also her three young children; Mestrallet's daughter, Agathe, and twins sons Henri and Baptiste, born this past March. Agathe has been listed as co-breeder along with her mother and grandmother on Coeursamba, Senza Malocchio and Captain Star, but she will have to share Marechale's future progeny with her brothers.

“It was to pay for her car when she turns 18,” Mestrallet laughed. “I had twin boys this year, and they'll all be marked down as breeders in the future: the boys will get the colts, and Agathe will get the fillies.”

Today, Aumonerie is home to some 30 mares, the majority of which are boarders. Among Mestrallet's own mares are the 10-year-old Caramanta (Fr) (Zamindar), who Mestrallet bought for €7,500 from the Aga Khan Studs at the 2014 Arqana December Sale. Caramanta's third foal is Caracal (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), who was bought by Al Shaqab Racing for €25,000 at Arqana October last year. Caracal won a pair of races at Bordeaux Le Bouscat for trainer Jean-Claude Rouget this autumn and is reportedly highly regarded by the trainer. Mestrallet has also repatriated two of Marechale's daughters, Comme Une Grand and Twelveoclock, to Aumonerie, such is her belief in her foundation mare. Comme Une Grand had a colt by Seahenge this year, while Twelveoclock was purchased at this year's Arqana July Sale in foal to Recoletos (Ire). Mestrallet also has O'Keefe (Fr) (Peintre Celebre), a Wertheimer-bred mare that she purchased for €19,000 in 2012. Using her tried and true system of French TBA draw nominations, Mestrallet bred O'Keefe to Jukebox Jury (Ire) for her first mating, and the result was the G3 St Leger Italiano winner O'Juke (Fr).

And of course there is Marechale, the €2,500 former claimer turned Classic producer. Asked if she has considered cashing in on the mare's success and selling Marechale, Mestrallet was resolute in response.

“I have had offers for Marechale, but I am keeping her,” she said. “She has given everything to my farm.”

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Bahrain An Emerging Force In World Racing

We have grown accustomed to being able to enjoy some decent midwinter racing action from the Middle East since the start of the Dubai International Racing Carnival in 2004. The Dubai World Cup, for so long the world's richest race bar a temporary interruption to that status by the Pegasus World Cup, has been usurped in recent years by the $20 million Saudi Cup, which is set for its third running in 2022.

The Bahrain International Trophy was recently staged for a third year, and for the first time it carried Group 3 status. Furthermore, it was the forerunner to the inaugural 10-race Bahrain Turf Series, which got underway last Friday and runs until Feb. 18 across seven meetings at Sakhir racecourse. The growing status of the racing programme on the island could yet lead to wider cooperation between the racing jurisdictions of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to establish a formal Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region series.

When interviewed for TDN recently, Neil Callan, who is riding in Bahrain throughout the winter, spoke of the conservative nature of the Bahraini people.

“They don't really like to announce that they've arrived,” he said. “But they are slowly but surely putting themselves on the map and I like the way they are doing things. They are doing it their way and it's gradual.”

That certainly appears to be the case, but there is also no denying the level of ambition from those behind the efforts to enhance the racing programme in Bahrain.

Shaikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, chairman of the high committee of Bahrain's Rashid Equestrian and Horse Racing Club (REHC) and the grandson of the King, said on the eve of this year's International Trophy, “It's been three years in the works. We have our Group 3 status now and we will not stop at one Group 3 race. As it was in year one with the Bahrain International, it was a strong race but people I felt were just testing the waters and have taken the plunge in years two and three. The Turf Series I feel is going in that direction.”

This year's Bahrain International Trophy, won by the Yorkshire-based Lord Glitters (Fr), featured runners from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany, while in the first two legs of the Turf Series there were 10 horses from outside Bahrain from the British stables of George Baker, Micheal Bell, Stan Moore, William Jarvis, Keith Dalgleish, Jamie Osborne and Charlie Hills. George Baker, who has stated his desire to operate a satellite stable in Bahrain, currently has two horses on the island.
“We're dipping the toe in this year. We had planned to have a stronger presence over there and to perhaps train some local horses as well as imported horses, but this year has really stymied a few of those plans,” said Baker, referring to the difficulties presented by Covid travel restrictions. “The British Ambassador was planning to have a drinks party for 100 people but we just haven't been able to do that, so we haven't been able to attract new people to the sport to set up local syndicates in the way that we hoped we would.”

He continued, “I have been very impressed by the enthusiasm of the whole team. Their ambition is tangible and they are great people to deal with. I feel very positive about it and in the fullness of time we hope we will have a permanent presence there through the season. It just hasn't evolved through this year, and that is nobody's fault, but it will evolve for sure.”

Evolution is certainly at the forefront of the plans of Shaikh Salman bin Rashed Al Khalifa, the executive director of REHC.

“I'm very happy to say that the Kingdom of Bahrain has been approved this year as a part two racing jurisdiction, up from part three,” he said in November.

As well as the Bahrain International Trophy's promotion, the International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee has awarded listed status to the Al Mehaq Cup, His Majesty the King's Cup and His Royal Highness The Crown Prince's Cup. The addition of a black-type sprint to the international card is also on the wish list.

Shaikh Salman continued, “Ultimately our main goal is to promote Bahrain in general as a racing jurisdiction and to seek more recognition from the Pattern Committee. So my goal here is to set down a solid base for races to be approved by the IFHA, and I think it's a great start for us to get three races from our local calendar, three local graded races, to be approved as [international] listed races.”

Horses play a prominent role in the heritage of Bahrain and while racing has taken place for centuries through informal meetings, the REHC was established and officially recognised in 1977. There are now around 350 horses in training on the island, many of them having been purchased and imported at horses-in-training sales in Britain and Ireland.

Bahrain's links to Britain in particular are evident in the names of a number of high-profile owners, including Shaikh Sultan Eddine Al Khalifa's Al Mohamediya Racing, which owned the G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde (Ire) (Lethal Force {Ire}). Roger Varian currently trains the 2-year-old Pure Dignity (GB), a Dubawi (Ire) half-sister to Sottsass (Fr) and Sistercharlie (Ire) who topped the Arqana Select Sale in 2020 at €2.5 million when bought by Oliver St Lawrence and Bahraini trainer Fawzi Nass for Shaikh Nasser Al Khalifa and his brother Shaikh Khalid's KHK Racing.

Furthermore, the honorary president of the REHC is Shaikh Abdullah bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has horses in training with Jonathan Portman and William Haggas, and is also a breeder in Britain, most notably of the Derby winner and successful Coolmore stallion, Camelot (GB).

Neil MacKenzie Ross, well known to many in British racing as the former clerk of the course at Lingfield, has been in Bahrain for seven years, where he performs the same role for the two turf courses at Sakhir.

“As soon as I got here I had numerous projects, the first being to install a new irrigation system for both tracks,” he noted. “In that time we've regenerated the inner track over the last couple of years and we have built the quarantine barns and added two new barns this summer.”

MacKenzie Ross added that the REHC is limiting the number of international horses to 20 throughout this first year of the series but that the new quarantine facilities can now stable 50 horses.

He continued, “There's been a lot of work on things like rubberising the paddock, installing new running rails, even things like putting a sauna in the jockeys' room. You name it, we're looking at it. At the moment we are working with Weatherbys who are building a racing software programme for entries and the studbook. We have brought in three vets from Baker McVeigh and Rob van Pelt is here as our regularity vet now.”

Another name that may be familiar to racing visitors to Bahrain is Olivia Hills, who has a wide range of experience with media, owners and trainers through her former roles with Ascot Racecourse and Jockey Club Racecourses, and is now employed as owners' and trainers' manager for the REHC. Her fellow recent recruit is racing client services manager Edward Veale, who was formerly with the International Racing Bureau in Newmarket.

The Turf Series, which resumes during the fixture of Dec. 31, is divided into two categories, one with races over six or seven furlongs and the other over nine or 10 furlongs. All races carry prize-money of £50,000.

“I think that during their time here in Bahrain, every horse should be able to participate in at least five races,” said Shaikh Salman. “It's a great alternative for winter racing in Europe. We took these decisions based on a lot of feedback from European trainers. I think trainers are keen on having more options, and it falls at a good time of the year.”

He added, “It has been a learning curve for us all since year one. I'm very happy with the progression and the pace of the development happening on the international calendar.”

Shaikh Salman was also keen to point out that the development of racing in the country is not all about attracting international runners to Bahrain.

“There's no doubt that local horses will have a good stake of the series,” he said prior to the first meeting, and indeed the Al Manama Cup and Al Muharraq Cup on Dec. 10 both fell to domestic runners.

He continued,”The international events are key to promote racing in the region but investing in our local trainers and jockeys is another point that we are concentrating on. We've set up a new jockey academy recently in affiliation with RACE Ireland, who are here at different times of the year to train our local jockeys. And I'm very happy to say that after they've completed two courses with the academy, we've noticed a jump in their performance and their skills and quality of riding.”

Ultimately there may well be a formalised multi-national racing series within the GCC region, with talks already underway between the REHC, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia and the Dubai Racing Club regarding a coordinated racing programme across the three jurisdictions.

“We have to work towards this because we are only as strong as each other,” said Shaikh Isa. “The more we work together and unify our best practices, the stronger the GCC will become as a unit for racing and we are well down the road towards having a GCC series.”

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