TDN Rising Star Elbaz Steps Out At Chantilly

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features the return of a 'TDN Rising Star'.

13.40 Chantilly, Cond, €34,000, 2yo, 1600mT
ELBAZ (FR) (Siyouni {Fr}) earned TDN Rising Star status on debut in Deauville's important Prix de Crevecoeur in July and Jean-Claude Rouget opts to stick to conditions races for now with The Aga Khan's relative of Siyouni's starlet Ervedya (Fr). Also in this Prix des Aigles is Peter Bradley's acquisition Metropolitan (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}), a Mario Baratti-trained relative of the GI Beldame S. runner-up Tiger Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) who also opened his account on debut at Deauville for Scuderia Scolari who retain a share.

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Making Waves: Classic Vibes At Kentucky Downs

In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of the Classic-placed Lindy at Kentucky Downs, formerly the “Dueling Grounds”, in Southern Kentucky.

 

Le Havre Filly Wins in Kentucky

The French Classic-placed Lindy (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) won a Kentucky Downs affair for Everest Racing and trainer Brendan Walsh on Thursday (video).

Part of the Ecurie La Vallee Martigny Earl breeding programme, Lindy was knocked down to Ghislain Bozo's Meridian International for €90,000 as a 2021 Arqana August yearling. A winner of her first three starts including a listed race at Toulouse for trainer Christophe Ferland and an ownership group of Ecurie Waldeck, Didier Provost, Ecurie Elag, Et Al, the filly was second in the G3 Prix de la Grotte behind Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), and would be runner-up again to that rival in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches for Everest Racing, Ecurie Waldeck, Meridian International, Ecurie Elag, Ecurie Nininoe, Provost and Frank Dhooghe. Unplaced in the G1 Prix de Diane, she was making her first Stateside start this week.

The third foal, winner and black-type horse out of her multiple stakes-placed dam Llanita (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), Lindy is a half-sister to listed winner Nirliit (Fr) (Iffraaj {GB}) and the multiple stakes-placed Almeida Girl (GB) (Temple City). Her dam has a juvenile colt named Shawnee (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) and a yearling colt by Zelzal (Fr).

Sumbe's late Le Havre has 50% winners to runners (10/20) in the U.S. His best is GI Keeneland Turf Mile S. hero Suedois (Fr), while Rymska (Fr) and Orglandes (Fr) have also won at the graded level.

 

 

An Oaks For Saxon Warrior Filly

Ken McPeek trainee Freydis The Red (Fr) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}) found the unique undulations of Kentucky Downs to her liking when winning the Listed Dueling Grounds Oaks for Walking L Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm (video).

Bred by Eric Puerari, Ocean Bloodstock, Ecurie du Parc Monceau et. al., the chestnut was plucked by McPeek out of the Arqana August Yearling for €125,000 in 2021. The daughter of the winning Songerie (Ger) (Shirocco {Ger}) had previously been placed in the GIII Pucker Up S. at Ellis Park last month. A half-sister to the stakes-placed Sojourn (Ger) (Iffraaj {GB}), the 3-year-old's juvenile half-sister Sogniamo (Fr) (Calyx {GB}) has been placed. Numerous Group 1 winners trace to the stakes-placed second dam Suivez (Fr) (Fioravanti), among them American champion Stacelita (Fr) (Monsun {Ger}), Japanese champions Soul Stirring (Jpn) (Frankel {GB}) and Stars On Earth (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), and Sunday's G1 Prix du Moulin heroine Sauterne (Fr) (Kingman {GB}).

Freydis The Red is the second stakes winner for Saxon Warrior in the U.S. after GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero Victoria Road (Ire). Three of his four starters (75%) are winners in America, while worldwide he has seven stakes winners. His Zulu Warrior (Fr) took the Listed Prix Turenne on Friday.

 

 

Siyouni Gelding Takes Rich Kentucky Downs Event

Representing Qatar Racing and Marc Detampel, Beuys (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) won for the first time on American soil at Kentucky Downs for trainer Brendan Walsh on Thursday evening (video).

Bred by Ecurie David Salabi, the gelding was a €220,000 Arqana October yearling in 2019 when picked up by Oceanic Bloodstock. He won his first two starts for Peter Brant's White Birch Farm and trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, and was subsequently transferred to the Chad Brown barn in the U.S. two starts later. Sold following a pair of tries at Gulfstream Park in Florida earlier this year, he brought $82,000 at the Keeneland April Horses of Racing Age Sale on the bid of agent Fergus Galvin.

Out of the winning Kendor (Fr) mare Plain Vanilla (Fr), Beuys is a half-brother to the G3 Prix Fille de l'Air second Vespera (Ire) (Teofilo {Ir}), and is from the family of G2 Prix de Sandringham heroine Volta (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), herself placed in both the G1 Prix Rothschild and the G1 Prix de Diane.

Standing under The Aga Khan Studs' banner at Haras de Bonneval, Siyouni has 15 winners from 37 runners (40%) in the U.S. to his credit. Four of them has struck at stakes level (10.1%), including Grade III winners Sacred Life (Fr), La Signare (Fr), and Love And Thunder (Ire).

 

 

Del Mar Route The Trick For Zoustar Filly

Lunar Impact (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) won at fourth asking stepping up to a mile for trainer Dan Blacker and D K Racing, Qatar Racing, Radley Equine, Rick Gold and Dave Odmark on the Del Mar grass on Saturday (video).

The P. E. Barrett-bred chestnut was a 100,000gns graduate out of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale when picked up by David Redvers and Boomer Bloodstock's Craig Rounsefell in 2021. She is the third winner for her dam, whose best result was a third at listed level in Germany. Button Moon (Ire) (Compton Place {GB}) has the juvenile filly Wedyan (GB) (Advertise {GB}), a yearling filly by Mohaather (GB), and a full-brother to Lunar Impact to come. This is the family of multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}).

From just six U.S. runners, reverse shuttle stallion Zoustar is responsible for three winners (50%) to date, with his first Northern Hemisphere-bred crop just 3-year-olds. Worldwide, the Widden Stud (SH)/Tweenhills Stud (NH) resident has 39 stakes winners, with his Northern Hemisphere best the G1 Cheveley Park S. heroine Lezoo (GB).

 

 

Honourable Mentions

GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. victor Gold Phoenix (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) secured his third graded stakes of the year, with a 1 1/4-length win in the GII Del Mar H. Presented by The Japan Racing Association for trainer Phil D'Amato (video).

Another D'Amato trainee was also already featured in a March column of Makings Waves, Anthony Fanticola's Motorious (GB) (Muhaarar {GB}). He earned his second graded stakes victory in Del Mar's GIII Green Flash H. last week (video). Thanks to the solid racecourse results for his progeny, his sire has earned a place at Haras du Petit Tellier for the coming year under a new partnership.

West Point Thoroughbreds and Dream With Me Stable's Parnac (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) claimed a career high in the GII Flower Bowl S. at Saratoga for Christophe Clement near the end of the meet (video). Her sire just sired his first Group 1 winner in Germany on Sunday.

 

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York: Can Paddington Run Continue in the Juddmonte International?

   When a horse like Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) comes along, the challenge is to find a new narrative as big-race win follows big-race win. There is no up-and-down to colour the story, no bouncing back from adversity, no heroic turnaround from setback. It is a clear case of superiority winning out each time, as it feels to watch Man City's relentless march through football's major tournaments on the other side of the Pennines. Sometimes, the truth is the horse does the talking and it is clear that we are dealing with a colt with a metronomic rhythm to his racing which at present shows no sign of being upset.

As far as Wednesday's G1 Juddmonte International is concerned, it is up a trio with varying credentials in Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) to halt the momentum of Ballydoyle's at once unassuming and impressive colt. He needs this win to match the five-in-a-row Group 1 tally of one of the current regime's initial superstars Giant's Causeway, who was beaten in the Irish 2000 Guineas in which Paddington began his sequence. Shape shifting between supreme miler and 10-furlong horse just like the “Iron Horse” before him, he remains in pursuit of the seven consecutive elite-level triumphs of more Rosegreen royalty in Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire).

After mastering the stern uphill climax of the Eclipse and the unorthodox gradients of Goodwood, fast and deep turf, the latest test comes on the Knavesmire's level playing field which catches out only the complacent. What can possibly go wrong? Aidan O'Brien can't pinpoint a weakness. “He's an amazing horse really and all he's done is progress with each race,” he reiterated on Tuesday. “There's nothin much else I can say about him, every time we've asked him a question he keeps coming up with it. The ground is fine and we know he stays the trip. He went to the Coral-Eclipse for his first run over a mile and a quarter, so this is a little bit further on a flatter track.”

This is Frankie's last chance to edge Lester Piggott for the outright record of six wins and it would be a freakish turn of fortune if Jim Crowley's suspension meant that it came on Wednesday on Shadwell's Mostahdaf. One of the least heralded of the big guns that lined up for Royal Ascot's G1 Prince of Wales's S., the Clarehaven slow-burner left nobody in any doubt that he was the only member of that particular cast made for a fast-ground mile-and-a-quarter test as he dished out a humbling beating to Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) and Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) et al.

The evidence of Riyadh and Royal Ascot suggest Mostahdaf is finally the finished article, but the question is whether that extra strength brought about by maturity is the equivalent of the seven pounds weight-for-age he advances to Paddington. John Gosden is looking forward to finding out now that the cards have fallen right with the wet spell behind us. “There's no change in Plan A, it was always to give him the time,” he said. “He benefited from time between Saudi Arabia and running in Dubai through to June and, again, we've taken a similar spacing with him.”

On Mostahdaf's surge up the Rankings, Shadwell's racing manager Angus Gold admits to having underestimated the 5-year-old as he headed to the Royal meeting. “If I'm honest, I was a bit surprised to see him win [the Prince of Wales's] quite like that, but I probably shouldn't have been after the way he won in Saudi earlier this year. He was very impressive there and really quickened,” he said. “I thought he ran well in the Sheema Classic at Meydan too, where Equinox just killed him off the bend and he didn't get home but I was still surprised to see just how well he was travelling against a proper group one field at Royal Ascot and just how well he quickened.”

Ballydoyle vs The Gosdens is the modern-day customary tale in these kind of events and it is significant that the Newmarket father-and-son axis bolster their challenge with Imad Al Sagar's beloved Nashwa here. Last year's G1 Prix de Diane heroine failed to see out this trip on testing ground on her return mission in Goodwood's G1 Nassau S., but had previously looked to be peaking in the G1 Falmouth S. over a mile and this faster surface is a prerequisite over this distance these days.

Hollie Doyle is keen to put the 4-year-old's latest effort behind her and she could be the fly in the ointment with her invaluable fillies' allowance. “They had an easy time on the front end and Nashwa moved up like the best filly in the race, but she'd possibly been further back than ideal on that ground which probably blunted the turn of foot she showed in the Falmouth,” she said. “She takes her races very well and I'm hearing good reports from home through Teddy Grimthorpe.”

Already a winner over this course and distance in the G2 Dante S., King Power Racing's The Foxes (Ire) has to do much better than a subsequent fifth in the Derby and second in the GI Belmont Derby Invitational. “The others may be proven at a higher level, but I do feel The Foxes is an improving horse and we haven't seen the best of him yet,” racing manager Alastair Donald explained. “It looks like he'll get his preferred conditions of fast ground and we know he likes the course and distance. It might end up being a trappy race and, you never know, it's worth being there.”

 

Gregory The Key Player In The Great Voltigeur…

With Mostahdaf facing such a stern challenge on Wednesday, Frankie might give the York faithful the flying dismount they crave after the preceding G2 Great Voltigeur S. where Wathnan Racing's unbeaten  Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) looks a solid proposition. Despite carrying a three-pound penalty for his G2 Queen's Vase exploits over two furlongs further than this mile-and-a-half contest, he looks a genuine stayer with speed. Ballydoyle's representative Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) had the pace to be third to The Foxes in the Dante and to get closest to one of his generation's bigwigs King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in a slowly-run G2 King Edward VII S., so if Gregory can usurp him and Godolphin's G3 Bahrain Trophy winner Castle Way (GB) (Almanzor {Fr}) with the odds slightly against him the St Leger will loom even larger on his horizon.

 

Big Moment For Keatley In The Acomb…

Adrian Keatley has been slowly making a name for himself from his British base and in another Wathnan Racing acquisition in Ballymount Boy (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) he has the right material to make waves in the always-important G3 Tattersalls Acomb S. Looking in need of this extra furlong when a length second to the subsequent G1 Prix Morny hero Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) in the G2 Richmond S. over six at Goodwood earlier this month, he sets the standard and it is just a case of whether he can contain the flow of unexposed types.

“We thought a lot of our horse going to Goodwood, so we weren't by any means surprised by his run and we appreciate that the winner now looks very good as well–it's all stacking up,” his trainer said. “He went from a four-runner novice race at Hamilton into a group two and it was a massive step, a massive ask, and he answered all the questions bar one. We think he could be a top-class seven furlong horse or miler for the future.”

With two Guineas winners in Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) winning this in the last five years, it pays to watch the untested colts closely and Cogitate (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) is one of the more intriguing. Trainer Charlie Hills said of the Newbury novice scorer, “His work has been good and we think he could be a nice horse for the future. He travelled very well [at Newbury], he's got a good attitude and a good temperament–I was really taken by his first run. He's a big, scopey horse and he should be a nice horse for next year as well.”

Also in the mix is Ballydoyle's Naas maiden winner Edwardian (No Nay Never), the Eve Johnson Houghton-trained Ascot maiden scorer Indian Run (Ire) (Sioux Nation) and the course-and-distance winner Loose Cannon (Ire) (Territories {Ire}) from the William Haggas stable.

 

Classic Rematch In Yorkshire Oaks…

Thursday's G1 Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks will see the G1 Irish Oaks one-two Savethelastdance  (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) square up again after a field of 10 was confirmed on Tuesday. Shadwell's G1 Nassau S. heroine Al Husn (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) is the key member of the older brigade, while in the supporting card's six-furlong G2 Lowther S. the G2 Queen Mary S. runner-up and Weatherbys Super Sprint winner Relief Rally (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) encounters eight rivals including Ballydoyle's impressive Curragh maiden winner Cherry Blossom (Ire) (No Nay Never).

 

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Paddington Heads Four In Mouthwatering Juddmonte International

Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) heads a field of four for the G1 Juddmonte International S. at York with Aidan O'Brien's star three-year-old bidding for a fifth success at the highest level.

His chief threat is Shadwell's G1 Prince Of Wales's S. hero Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). The John and Thady Gosden-trained colt will be accompanied by stablemate Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who bids to rebound off a third-placed effort in the G1 Nassau S at Goodwood.

King Power Racing's Derby fifth The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) will have his first start since last month's GI Belmont Derby Invitational in New York where he finished an unlucky second.

Opening day on the Knavesmire will also feature the five-runner Sky Bet G2 Great Voltigeur S., in which Wathnan Racing's undefeated G2 Queen's Vase victor Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) will line out in advance of a possible tilt at next month's G1 St Leger.

The pattern-race action gets under way with the seven-furlong G3 Tattersalls Acomb S., which has attracted six juveniles headed by another Wathnan Racing acquisition, Ballymount Boy (Ire) (Camacho {GB}).

He was last seen finishing second to G1 Prix Morny hero Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) in this month's G2 Richmond S. at Goodwood. The Adrian Keatley trainee will exit from gate two for his first start in fresh silks.

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